


awake the stars ('cause they're all around you)

by stonestars



Category: Critical Role (Web Series)
Genre: F/F, Fallen Star AU, the soft zuyasha we all deserve
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-06-26
Updated: 2019-10-16
Packaged: 2020-05-19 22:36:56
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 22,521
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19365232
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/stonestars/pseuds/stonestars
Summary: High in the sky, watching over every planet, the stars live.There are countless stars, just as there are countless people on the planets they shine above.The purpose of stars is to watch. The purpose of stars is not to get involved. The purpose of stars is certainly not to fall in love.And certainly not with each other.This is the story of two stars, a mismatched collection of people from the planet below them, hope, and- most of all- love.





	1. to go (to follow)

**Author's Note:**

  * For [authoressConjurer](https://archiveofourown.org/users/authoressConjurer/gifts).



> this is a birthday gift for my really good bud! i love writing zuyasha okay it's so soft. (this is loosely based off the movie stardust!)

High in the sky, watching over every planet, the stars live.

 

There are countless stars, just as there are countless people on the planets they shine above. 

 

The purpose of stars is to watch. The purpose of stars is not to get involved. The purpose of stars is certainly not to fall in love.

 

And certainly not with each other. 

 

This is the story of two stars, a mismatched collection of people from the planet below them, hope, and- most of all- love.  

 

The first is Yasha, a shooting star. Shooting stars are born to fly across the sky, to offer hope in the form of wishes. They do not spend a night in the same place twice and that is, for the most part, how they like it.

 

The second star is Zuala. She does not travel across the night sky, because she does not need to. Zuala was not born too fly; Zuala was born to shine. She watches the world from the east, illuminating the night sky even as the sun sets in the west. 

 

They were not meant to meet, but shooting stars do not travel with a plan in mind, and one midsummer night Yasha flew across the sky to find herself close to the brightest star in the east. As she settled into her own soft glow for the rest of the night, the brightest star spoke to her. 

 

Stars shine brighter when they’re happy. That night, as Yasha told her stories of the world she’d seen beyond the eastern sky, Zuala shone brighter than she had in a long time.

 

After that, Yasha returned to the eastern sky often. She’d make her way across the sky to some other part of the world one night, and return the next with stories of what she had seen. In return, Zuala would tell her of the people in the eastern lands that she had come to know well from watching them. She had seen civilizations rise and fall and generations come and go, watched families grow and shrink and grow again with the ages. 

 

Years passed, thousands of them. Every other night, they shone next to each other, brighter than they did apart. They did not have a word for what they had together, but to them, it was the most special thing they had ever had. And that was enough, up there in the sky.

 

And then, one day, as Yasha streaked across the sky away from Zuala, their world changed.

 

\--

 

_ To the West tonight, then?  _ Yasha asks as she watches the sun disappear in the distance. 

 

_ To the West,  _ Zuala replies.  _ I’ll look forward to your stories tomorrow night. _

 

_ And I to yours.  _ And with a burst of energy, Yasha is off across the sky, rocketing away from Zuala with a trail of brilliant white light behind her. She casts one last glance at the glowing star behind her, shining so brilliantly in the darkness, and--

 

Yasha doesn’t see the meteor floating gently through space approaching, because she’s looking back. She impacts it with all of the speed of a shooting star, sending it careening off into space. 

 

And sending her careening down towards the planet below, light still streaking behind her.

 

Zuala does see it all. She watches as Yasha plummets to the planet, and from this distance, she is unable to do anything about it. 

 

In the eastern sky, the brightest star begins to dim. 

  
Zuala is not a shooting star, she was not made to fly. But in that instant, she isn’t thinking of that. She isn’t thinking of what Yasha means to her or the nights she would spend alone without Yasha going forward. She isn’t thinking about the planet below losing its eastern star; instead, she is thinking only one thing as she strains against her nature towards the planet below. 

 

_ Please. _

 

She is not asking anyone in particular, perhaps she is simply asking her own power. She pulls and pulls towards the planet, towards Yasha, and then, with a sudden ferocity, she pulls herself from her place in the sky and streaks forward.

 

\--

 

As Yasha falls towards the planet, the light that makes up her form begins to solidify, forming into a vaguely humanoid form with two large wings sprouting from her back. She isn’t aware of this transformation because she isn’t aware of much at all. She can’t see well past the flames surrounding her, but she does manage to notice something below her as it gets larger and larger; an endless expanse of rippling blue. 

 

On the deck of the airship  _ The Ball Eater,  _ half of a family are taking advantage of the clear night to lounge around outside while most of their crew is asleep. The ship floats anchored in the air above the western ocean, drifting only slightly in the breezes from the water below it.

 

Jester Lavorre lays sprawled across the middle of the open deck, watching the sky, her tail swishing idly across the ground. She tips her head to the side, eyes settling on Fjord, their captain by the virtue of being the only one able to fly the ship. He’s dozing off as he stares out across the ocean, leaning against the wooden barrier that runs around the deck’s edge. 

 

“Fjord!” Jester calls, causing the half-orc to jump.

 

“Huh?” he turns quickly, eyes darting around the deck searching for Jester. He sighs as he spots her. “Don’t scare me like that, Jester. What is it?”

 

Jester hums softly. “When do you think Caleb and Nott and Beau will be done researching so that we can all go back to adventuring  _ together _ ,” she asks, rolling all the way onto her side.

 

Before Fjord can answer, Caduceus emerges from the ship’s interior with four cups of tea balanced on a tray. “Mr. Caleb and the others will be back soon, I’m sure,” he says, walking one over to Fjord. 

 

He’s followed closely by Mollymauk, who had followed him below deck when he’d left to make tea earlier. Molly now climbs onto the deck with his fiddle tucked carefully under his arm and Caduceus’s cello across his back. 

 

“I wish they’d come back soon,” Jester says. 

 

“I think we all do,” Caduceus replies as he walks over to give Jester her tea.

 

Jester’s eyes light up as she sits up to take the cup from Caduceus and spots Molly with the instruments. “Are you guys going to play for us again?” she asks, blowing three quick bursts of air over her teacup to try to cool the tea.

 

“We figured why not,” Molly says, carefully leaning Caduceus’s cello against a crate and beginning to tune his fiddle. “We’ve got to have our act down when everyone comes back so you can have that dance with the unpleasant one, right?”

 

Jester continues to blow air over her tea, her cheeks flushing slightly. “I wish we’d get a piano soon so I can play with you guys,” she says, ignoring Molly’s comment.

 

“We’d all like that, I think,” Caduceus says. He puts the tray with his and Molly’s tea down on the crate his cello had been leaning on and settles in to tune as well.

 

As Caduceus and Molly play their first note together, Fjord spots something streaking towards them from the east. A bright light arching overhead, hurtling towards the ocean. 

 

“Guys?” he calls, pointing upward. 

 

The four of them watch as the light comes down at an angle towards the ocean past their ship. Caduceus gasps softly as the light comes closer. “It’s a person,” he says in amazement.

 

“What?! There’s no way that’s a person _ ,”  _ Jester exclaims, but then she sees it too. “Holy shit you guys it’s a  _ person!” _

 

They watch as the light-- the person-- crashes into the ocean in the near distance. 

 

“What do we do?” Fjorod asks in amazement. 

 

“We’ve got to go help them of course! Oh my god what if they’re like a magic person and we get three wishes from saving them?” Jester hurries over to the side of the ship so she can peer at where they saw the person crash into the water. 

 

“I think that’s a genie, but I could be wrong,” Caduceus says.

 

“Huh? But we saw a person crash down there, not a lamp,” Jester says with a frown.

 

“No I meant the-- nevermind, you have a point. Mollymauk?” 

 

Molly has grabbed both his and Caduceus’s instruments and is stowing them in a crate, but he stops to look over at the three of them. They stare back at him, waiting for something. “Why are we not going? Let’s go!”

 

The four of them jump into action. Though their crew is asleep, they have enough experience between them to get the ship going. They speed towards the crash site, slowing as they get closer. 

 

It’s Jester who spots her first-- she’s floating on her back in the water below them. It takes them a few minutes to pull her up onto the ship, but eventually she stumbles onto the deck, dazed and shaking, and falls to her hands and knees.

 

Jester is also the first to get to her side, putting a hand on her shoulder and coming in with a barrage of questions. “Are you okay? Where did you come from? What happened?” What’s your name?”

 

\--

 

Yasha did not see the airship as she streaked towards the ocean, but she’s grateful for it when it pulls her out of the water. She’s still dazed and not quite sure what’s going on, and she misses most of the questions that her rescuer throws at her because of the speed at which they are asked.

 

She does manage to catch her ask for her name, but nothing more. She rubs her head, which hurts, and that’s a new experience because she’s not used to having a head, let alone one that hurts. 

 

She coughs a few times, water splattering onto the deck under her. “Yasha,” she manages. “My name’s Yasha.” 

 

She sits back, looking around. The girl next to her has blue skin, and horns, and a concerned and wide-eyed expression. There are three others that she sees. One is purple, but otherwise similar in features, decked out in a colorful coat. Another is green, in beat up leathers, standing behind the ship’s wheel. 

 

The last is tall, with bright pink hair and an easy smile. He picks up a teacup from a tray and carries it over to them, offering it to Yasha. 

 

She takes it, though she’s not quite sure what to do with it. 

 

The blue girl has started looking Yasha over carefully for… something, Yasha’s not quite sure what. 

 

“What’s… your name?” Yasha asks. She’s not the best at social skills, but the only experience she’s ever had is Zuala, so maybe that’s not surprising. 

 

“Oh, I’m Jester!” She points towards the green man at the wheel. “That’s Fjord. He’s the captain. That one’s Molly, and this is Caduceus.” She frowns, carefully holding Yasha’s hair up so she can see underneath. “She fell all that way, Caduceus, but she doesn’t look hurt at  _ all.”  _

 

Caduceus, the tall pink haired one, leans over Yasha to take a look as well. “How are you feeling, Yasha?” he asks. 

 

“And where did you come from? You fell super fast and super far, did you come from space?”

 

Yasha’s hands tighten around her cup of tea. “Something like that,” she says. 

 

Jester’s eyes widen. “What were you doing in space, Yasha? Space isn’t safe for people, how’d you stay alive up there?”

 

“Now, Jester,” Fjord begins from his spot at the wheel. 

 

“Jessie has a good point,” Molly interjects. “I’d like to hear this.”

 

Yasha stares down into the reflection of stars in her cup. “Well I’m not really a…  person,” she says. 

 

“Well of course you’re a person, you look like a person and you talk like a person,” Jester says. 

 

“So you must be a duck,” Caduceus says with an easy smile. 

 

Jester gives him a confused look. 

 

“It looks like a duck, quacks like a duck, so it must be a duck,” Caduceus clarifies. Jester giggles.

 

Molly pats him on the shoulder. “So what are you?” he asks. 

 

Yasha takes a deep breath. “I’m a star,” she says. 

 

She gets four blank stares in response. 

 

“You know,” she says, pointing upwards towards the sky. “A star. Not exactly like that. But close. I’m a shooting star.”

 

“And you shot down here?” Fjord asks. 

 

“Well, not on purpose,” Yasha says. “I… hit something, I think. I wasn’t supposed to come down here.”

 

“If you’re a star, Yasha, how come you look like a person?” Jester asks, looking Yasha over again. 

 

Yasha frowns. “I don’t know…” she says. “I don’t even know what I look like.”

 

Jester gasps. “But Yasha, you’re so pretty!”

 

“Thank you… I think,” Yasha says.

 

“Molly do you still have that really big mirror? We could show Yasha what she looks like!” Jester stares hopefully up at Molly.

 

Molly thinks for a moment, and then nods. “Give me a minute, will you?” he says, disappearing below deck. 

 

Caduceus takes a sip of his tea. “So,” he says, “what are you looking for here?”

 

Yasha blinks. “What do you mean?” she asks.

 

“In my experience, everyone is heading in some direction. I’m assuming that applies to people stars as well.”

 

“I…” Yasha looks up towards the sky, to the lights shining above them. “There’s… I didn’t mean to fall here, so… I don’t know. I need to get back.” She smiles slightly, just a twitch of the corner of her lip. “Someone is waiting for me.”

 

Jester clasps her hands together. “Oh, Yasha, do you have a lover star? Are you married or are you--” her eyebrows move up and down suggestively as she trails off. 

 

Yasha looks down. “She’s… she is special to me, but we aren’t married or… together like that,” she says. “I just… I promised to bring her stories from the west.”

 

Jester tips her head to the side.

 

“Well, see… not all stars are shooting stars. So not everyone gets to see the whole world like I can. She stays in the eastern sky. That’s where she’s supposed to be.”

 

“So you’d tell her stories from everywhere that she couldn’t see?” Jester asks. 

 

Yasha nods. “Something like that,” she says. “And she’d tell me about the people she watches over.”

 

“Oh, Yasha, that’s so sweet! What’s her--”

 

“A little help here?” Molly interrupts Jester as he climbs up above deck. Jester jumps to her feet, running over to help him pull the mirror onto the deck. Together they carry it over to Yasha, setting it in front of her.

 

It’s strange for Yasha, who has never had a physical form, to look at herself in the mirror. It’s stranger still to try to take in what she’s seeing and equate it back to her. 

 

In the mirror in front of her is a tall woman with pale skin, her hair white at the tips but seemingly permanently charred from some sort of impact closer to the roots. Her eyes are mismatched, one blue and one violet, and there’s a light shining deep inside them that surprises even her. Her hair is braided intricately, and she’s wearing white robes that would be flowing if they weren’t soaked. 

 

“Is this… me?” Yasha asks softly, reaching up to touch her hair. 

 

Jester, who is helping Molly hold up the mirror, beams at her. “That’s you, Yasha.”

 

Molly whistles softly. “Pretty nice if I do say so myself.”

 

Yasha smiles weakly and shivers a little, suddenly aware of the clothes clinging to her. Caduceus notices. “Mr. Fjord, do you think we could anchor the ship for the night and head inside? It is late, after all.”

 

Fjord nods. “Yeah. Molly?” he gestures towards the anchor with his head. 

 

“Why are you asking Molly to do it, I’m stronger than him!” Jester says, crossing her arms. Molly almost drops the mirror as she lets go of it. 

 

“Well I was just--” Fjord sighs heavily. “Jester, could you get the anchor?”

 

Jester grins. “Yasha, will you help me with the anchor?”

 

“Sure, I could do that,” Yasha says. “I don’t know how though.”

 

“That’s okay, I’ll show you!” Jester grabs Yasha’s hand, pulling her across the deck. She shows Yasha how to let down the anchor, hands expertly guiding Yasha’s. 

 

“You’ve done this a lot, Jester.”

 

Yester’s smile widens. “I’m basically an expert,” she says. “Beau usually helps me, but Beau’s not here right now.”

 

“Beau?”

 

“My friend! She and Caleb and Nott are doing research right now. Caleb wants to use magic to improve the ship, or something, and Beau’s trying to find a treasure map.”

 

Yasha blinks. “Are those common?” 

 

Jester shakes her head. “No, I think Beau just didn’t want Caleb to go by himself. Caleb’s really weak when it comes to not magic. That’s why Nott went too.” 

 

“I see…” Yasha watches as Jester ties off some ropes with expert quickness, feeling a bit useless. “Are Beau and Caleb you know…” she moves her two index fingers together to show what she means.

 

Jester’s face screws up in disgust. “No,” she says. “Beau likes girls. And they’re more like brother and sister.” 

 

“I see…” Yasha says again. 

 

Jester dusts her hands off as she finishes with the ropes. “Let’s go inside. I think we can find you some clothes that aren’t super super wet and still fit okay. And Caduceus can make you some more tea, and some food.”

 

Yasha smiles, letting Jester guide her towards the ship’s interior. “That would be nice.”


	2. (tell me again my dear) will you be waiting here

While Zuala is more conscious of her trajectory towards the planet, she is also less used to flying. She tries to aim herself west, does her best to remember where she saw Yasha land, but her trajectory is shaky and she finds herself hurtling towards land instead of towards the ocean. 

 

Miles away from the  _ Ball Eater _ , in the east, there is one light still on in the Cobalt Soul library despite the late hour. 

 

Inside, Beauregard leans her chair back with a groan, turning her head towards her friends. Caleb has taken up most of their table with books-- there are at least 5 open around him and his notebook, and he’s still writing furiously. Nott is across from him, trying to get flowers to stay in Frumpkin’s fur. “Caleb,” Beau groans, “how much longer are we gonna be here tonight? It’s like… fucking midnight or something at this point.”

 

Caleb doesn’t respond for a minute as he continues to scrawl a note. “Just a little longer,” he mumbles. 

 

Beau looks to Nott for help. She looks up from the cat with a shrug. 

 

She sighs. “Stupid Cobalt Soul rules. You know, you better be glad that I was already a member when we met.”

 

“ _ Ja.  _ I do,” Caleb says absentmindedly. His gaze drifts across the pages in front of him. 

 

Just as Beau goes to say something, there’s a loud crash in the courtyard outside, accompanied by a searingly bright light. “The fuck?” Beau’s already on her feet, running towards the doors. 

 

“Beauregard, wait, it could be--” Caleb sighs as she disappears through the doorway. “ _ Scheiße.  _ Nott, we cannot let her go alone.”

 

Nott tucks the flower she was working on behind her ear, nodding. The two of them take off running after Beau, Frumpkin following behind with flowers falling out of his fur. 

 

Beau gets out to the courtyard first. “Holy shit,” she says to no one in particular as she takes in the crater that has formed in the library’s courtyard. 

 

Caleb and Nott catch up quickly, stopping on either side of her. The four balls of light that Caleb had been using to read slide to a stop and float in the air around them. “What happened here?” Nott asks in amazement. 

 

Caleb squints into the clearing smoke. “I think there is someone in there,” he says quietly. “Everyone be careful.”

 

“How the fuck would someone have survived that?” Beau asks, gesturing to the ruined stone and grass. 

 

“I don’t know,” Caleb says. His hands glow with a soft arcane light. “Nott, do you want to sneak in and take a look?”

 

Nott nods, pulling the hood of her cloak up. Her hands glow faintly as well as she reaches up to touch one of the buttons on her necklace. She steps away and invisibility envelops her as if she had simply stepped out of the fabric of reality. 

 

Nott moves swiftly through the clearing smoke towards the center of the crater.

 

\--

 

Zuala stumbles to her feet in the middle of the crater she caused, trying to wave the dust and smoke she’d kicked up away from her face. She coughs a few times as the heavy air hits her lungs. 

 

She looks around, failing to notice the disturbance in the smoke in the shape of a tiny form watching her carefully. “I did it,” she whispers in amazement, turning her gaze towards the sky. Sure enough, she can see the place she normally shines, and yet it’s dark, and she’s here. 

 

Suddenly, there’s the sound of a crossbow notching behind her. “Who are you and what do you want?” a shrill voice asks suddenly and loudly. 

 

Zuala freezes, not daring to turn around. “I’m not here to hurt anyone,” she says quickly. 

 

“Is it just the one person, Nott?” an accented voice calls from beyond the smoke. 

 

“Yeah,” the voice behind her calls back. Something hits her back. “You’re gonna walk that way towards my friends. If you try anything funny I’ll shoot.”

 

Zuala nods, letting Nott push her forward through the smoke. 

 

When she emerges, it takes her eyes a moment to adjust to the lights floating in the air. 

 

“Jesus, Nott,” a third voice says, “you didn’t have to bring her here at fucking gunpoint.”

 

“This isn’t a gun,” Nott says. “And what if she’s dangerous?”

 

“There’s three of us and one of her.” Zuala’s eyes adjust, and she pegs the third voice as belonging to the woman standing in front of her who is decked out in blue and holding a long wooden staff. 

 

The second voice, then, is the man next to her with the cat on his shoulders. 

 

The pressure disappears from her back and Nott, who is shorter than Zuala expected and wearing a cloak pulled over her head, darts over to join the other two. 

 

Zuala holds her hands up. “I’m not here to hurt anyone.”

 

“You just made a pretty big crater in the courtyard for someone who is not here to hurt anyone,” the man says. 

 

She takes a deep breath. “I can explain,” she says. “My name is Zuala. I’m sorry I crashed into your--” she looks around, trying to figure out what the building is.

 

“Library?” the woman offers. 

 

“Library,” Zuala says. “I didn’t have any experience with flying before. I think I missed.” 

 

“Flying from where?” the woman asks. 

 

Yasha points towards the sky where she normally shines.

 

“Not a direction,” the woman says. “A place.”

 

“Beauregard,” the man next to her says, putting a hand on her shoulder. “I think she means… do you see the eastern star?” 

 

“Caleb, what are you-- of course I see-- oh. Shit.” Beauregard looks towards Zuala. “You came from the star?”

 

“I’ve read about something like this, from a very long time ago,” Caleb says. “You didn’t come from the star, did you?” He watches Zuala carefully. “You are the star.”

 

\--

 

It takes the joint effort of Jester, Molly, and Fjord to find clothes that’ll fit Yasha while Caduceus makes the tea. The three of them leave Yasha and Caduceus alone in the kitchen as they search. 

 

Caduceus busies himself with the teakettle as soon as they do, his back to Yasha as he works. “So, Miss Yasha,” he says, “if you didn’t mean to get here, how’d you get here?”

 

Yasha looks down at the wood of the table she’s seated at, tracing a hand over the symbols carved into it. “I hit something,” she says. “I was distracted.” 

 

“Hm?” 

 

“By my… by the other star, the one who I promised to bring stories to.”

 

“And you want to go back?” Caduceus asks. 

 

Yasha is quiet for a long moment. “Well I… I’m not sure if I would,” she says. “If things were different, you know? If she wasn’t up there, well, I don’t know…” 

 

“You might not?” Caduceus begins looking through tins of tea leaves. He opens one, sniffs it, puts it back. Opens another, puts it aside. 

 

“You mean if she was here and not up there?”

 

Caduceus nods. 

 

“I don’t know, I think… I don’t know.” Yasha sighs. 

 

“Think about it, Miss Yasha,” Caduceus says. 

 

Yasha isn’t really sure what to respond. “Okay,” she says. She tucks her hands back onto her lap. “What is carved here? These are interesting carvings.”

 

Caduceus glances over at the table. “Oh, those are Jester’s,” he says.

 

“What are mine, Caduceus?” Jester asks as she opens the door, a pile of clothes in her arms. 

 

“The carvings,” Caduceus says. 

 

“Oh! My dicks! Do you like them, Yasha?” 

 

Yasha nods. “Are you an artist, Jester?”

 

Jester grins. “Yeah! If you like those, I’ll show you my sketchbook later!” She puts a hand on Yasha’s shoulder. “Come on, Yasha, we’re going to try on clothes!”

  
“Okay,” Yasha says, standing up. “Thank you,” she says to Caduceus as she follows Jester down the hallway to a cabin. 

 

“Beau and I usually share this room, but you can stay with me while Beau’s not here,” Jester says as she dumps the pile of clothes in the middle of the floor, on top of an already substantial stack. “Let’s see… what should you try on first, Yasha?”

 

Yasha, a bit overwhelmed by the volume of clothes in front of her, shrugs. 

 

“I’ll pick, then!” 

 

\--

 

20 minutes later, despite Jester’s attempts to convince Yasha to wear a number of outrageous items of clothing, including a bright purple pirate coat and a giant feathered hat, Yasha settles for a simple pair of dark grey cloth trousers and a lighter sleeveless top. 

 

Jester does manage to convince her to wear a sleeveless white version of the purple pirate coat, mainly because Yasha can’t say no to the grin on Jester’s face when she tries it on.

 

They make their way back to the kitchen to find Molly, Caduceus, and Fjord at the table. Cups of tea are waiting for them-- Yasha watches Jester blow on hers and then sip it carefully and follows suit.

 

“This is lovely,” Yasha says quietly, staring down into the cup. 

 

“Thank you, Miss Yasha,” Caduceus says with a warm smile.

 

“What old coots are in our cup this time, Caddy?” Molly asks. 

 

“This would be…” Caduceus takes a sip of his tea. “The Castalas. Not the nicest, but they make great tea.”

 

Yasha’s eyes widen. “This is… people?”

 

“Well,” Caduceus says.

 

“It’s Caduceus’s dead people tea,” Jester says with a grin.

 

“That’s not exactly… it’s not people in the sense you’re probably thinking, Yasha,” Fjord says. 

 

“How is it…” Yasha looks curiously over at Caduceus. 

 

“Well,” Caduceus says. “This tea comes from the plants that grow on the graves in my family’s cemetery.”

 

“You’re not drinking bodies,” Molly reassures her.

 

“Huh,” Yasha says. “Either way, it’s very good.”

 

Caduceus beams. “Thank you.”

 

“So, Yasha?” Fjord says. 

 

“Hm?”

 

“Deuces and Molly and I were talking and we were wondering… how are you planning on getting back to the sky?”

 

Yasha tucks her hair behind her ear. “I’ll fly,” she says. 

 

Jester gasps. “Do you have wings?”

 

“I… think so,” Yasha says. “I’ve never been a person before, but I feel like I do.”

 

\--

 

Back at the library, Zuala, Beau, Caleb, and Nott have settled around an empty table, Caleb’s lights drifting slowly through the air above them.

 

“So let me get this straight,” Beau says, eyebrows raised as she watches Zuala across the table. “The reason why you left a crater in the courtyard that makes it look like you came from space--”

 

“Is because I did, yes.” Zuala isn’t paying attention to Beau’s look. She’s too busy inspecting Frumpkin, who has stretched out on the table in front of her. 

 

“And even though you look like a person, you’re not?” Beau asks.

 

“Right.”

 

“It is rare,” Caleb says. “But I have heard of such a thing.”

 

Nott pokes Zuala’s side. “You certainly feel like a person,” she says.

  
Zuala wiggles away from Nott’s finger. “That’s because I’m not in the sky right now,” she says. She tentatively puts a hand out to Frumpkin, who sniffs it and then rubs his cheek against it.

 

“Caleb, can I talk to you for a moment?” Beau stands up from the table, gesturing away from them.

 

Caleb looks at Zuala and then back at Beau, who has made her way into one of the rows of bookcases. He grabs Nott’s hand and turns to Zuala. “Give us a moment,” he says.

 

Zuala nods.

 

“What are we doing,” Beau half-whispers when Caleb and Nott approach. 

 

“What do you mean?” Nott climbs the bookcase and perches on one of the shelves, about eye-level with the humans.

 

Beau gestures towards Zuala.

 

Zuala pokes Frumpkin’s nose gently. Frumpkin yawns in response, and Zuala beams. 

 

“She can’t stay here,” Beau says. “We don’t know anything about her. Plus, how the fuck are we gonna explain the damage to the courtyard?”

 

“Magical mishap?” Nott suggests, looking at Caleb.

 

He runs a hand through his hair. “I would prefer not to get banned from this library if I can avoid it, Nott.”

 

“I can take the blame you know,” Zuala says, causing the three others to jump.

 

Nott climbs all the way to the top of the bookcase, scampering to the end of it so she can look down at Zuala. “You could hear us?”

 

Zuala raises her eyebrows up at her. “You were not being very quiet. I’ll answer whatever questions you have, you know.”

 

Beau and Caleb emerge from the bookcases. “Well,” Beau says. “Would you tell us why you came here?”

 

Zuala watches them as they settle back at the table with her. “You know how there are lots of stars in the sky?”

 

“Of course there are lots of--” Beau stops her sentence after a look from Caleb, sitting back and biting her tongue.

 

Zuala smiles faintly at the interaction. “There’s another star-- a shooting star, the ones who fly around everywhere in the sky.” She looks up, as if she could see the sky through the ceiling. “She hit something and fell here. I… followed her.”

 

“Seems like an awful lot to do for someone,” Beau says.

 

“She… means a lot to me.”

 

“Is she your wife?” Nott asks, suddenly a bit more serious.

 

Zuala shakes her head.

 

“Kid?”

 

“How would that even  _ work _ , Nott?” Beau asks.

 

Nott shrugs. Zuala shakes her head again. “I have been in the same place for more years than I can count. She brings me stories from everywhere. From the west and the south and the north and beyond where I can see. And she’s been doing it for a while so… we know each other pretty well. Better than any of the other stars.”  _ Better than we probably should,  _ Zuala thinks.

 

“So you want to find her,” Caleb supplies. 

 

Zuala nods.

  
“What then? What would you do once you found her?” Beau asks.

 

“I’d… get us back, hopefully. In the sky.”

 

“Even though you don’t like being stuck in the same place?” Nott says, tipping her head.

 

“Huh?”

 

“Well, it’s just…” Nott looks down at Frumpkin on the table, plucking one of the few remaining flowers from his fur. “Some people do better on the go, like me. It sounds like you wish you could be what she is.”

 

Zuala blinks at Nott. “Well, maybe I wish I could travel too, but… I love Yasha’s stories. Hearing about it  _ from  _ her.”

 

“What if you could travel with her?” Beau suggests.

 

Zuala smiles at the thought. “That would be nice. Only if she wanted to.”

 

“And if she didn’t?”

 

“I would go back to the sky if she did. I wouldn’t want to be down here while she’s up there, just like I wouldn’t be up there while she’s down here.”

 

“Hm.” Caleb leans his chair back. “We have some friends with a ship. We could wait until Jester sends a message to one of us--” he looks over at Beau, who, if she notices his look, chooses to ignore it. “--and then ask them to come meet us. So you can look for your-- Yasha, you said?” 

 

Zuala nods.

 

“Do you know where she fell?”

 

“The west, I think,” Zuala says. “There’s an ocean? I’ve never seen it but she’s told me about it.”

 

“We could fly over it and look for her,” Caleb says. “In the meantime, I will research a way to get you both back, if you want to.” His lips are pursed together in a thin line as he leans back in his chair thinking. He closes his eyes, his brow furrowing.

 

“Caleb?” Nott asks, frowning at his seriousness.

 

“Zuala,” Caleb says, “how much do you know about stars coming down here?”

 

\--

 

Back on the  _ Ball Eater,  _ Yasha is finishing her tea. 

 

She smiles at Caduceus as he takes her cup. “Thank you, the tea was lovely,” she tells him, earning a smile.

 

“I’m sensing a ‘but’ there,” Molly says, leaning his chair back.

 

Yasha folds her hands in her lap. “I should really be getting back,” she says.

 

Jester frowns. “Awww, do you have to, Yasha?”

 

Yasha nods. “Someone is waiting for me, remember.”

 

“Oh! Your lover star!”

 

“Well she’s--” Yasha sighs, lacking the words to clarify or argue with that statement, and not necessarily wanting to. “You all have been very kind. I appreciate it, really.” 

 

“Do you need us to take you anywhere?” Fjord asks, standing up from the table.

 

Yasha stands too. “No, I think I can leave from here. Thank you, though.”

 

Jester and Fjord follow her out, Molly and Caduceus staying behind to clean up from tea. Yasha makes her way to the middle of the deck, turning her face towards the sky and the stars above. 

 

“I don’t know if you can come back,” Jester says, “but if you do come visit, okay? I’ve got lots more things to show you!”   
  
Yasha looks back over and Jester and Fjord. “I appreciate it,” she says with a smile. “And I will. If I do.”

 

Fjord nods to her. “Stay safe up there.”   
  
She nods back, looking back up at the sky. She closes her eyes, focusing on flying, on getting back to Zuala.

 

The sensation of the air rushing past her that she expects never comes. What does come is a soft startled gasp from Jester across the deck.

 

“Oh, Yasha,” she says, something in her voice making Yasha open her eyes and realize she hasn’t moved at all. She looks over to see Jester and Fjord staring at her. Fjord’s eyebrows are furrowed, Jester has both hands on her cheeks as she stares across the deck.

 

“That’s why you weren’t hurt earlier, your wings must’ve protected you,” Fjord says in amazement.

 

Jester crosses the deck quickly, her hand glowing with a faint light. “Let me see if I can help you,” she says.

  
Yasha frowns, holding up a hand. “Wait, wait, help me with what?” she asks.

 

Jester’s shoulders deflate a little. “You don’t… okay, okay, okay, we’re going to help you get it fixed so don’t even be scared of that I promise we’ll help you but--” she gestures over to the mirror that’s still leaning against one of the crates on the deck. 

 

Yasha walks slowly over. The moment she sees what Jester means, she gasps, clasping her hands over her mouth. 

 

The wings spreading behind her are charred, with barely any feathers remaining; almost everything to them is gone save for the skeleton. Certainly they wouldn’t be able to sustain her in flight. 

 

Jester appears behind her in the mirror, putting a hand on her shoulder. The wings disappear into ashes as Yasha falls to her knees, no longer thinking about keeping their form maintained. 

 

“Yasha,” Jester says, kneeling in front of her. “It’ll be okay. We’re going to help you.”

 

“I--” Yasha can’t help the tears that are falling. “How am I going to-- how am I going to get back to her.”

 

Jester’s eyebrows furrow as she squeezes Yasha’s shoulders. “Oh, Yasha,” she says. “We’ll get you there, I promise. We won’t stop until we figure out how.” She pulls Yasha in for a hug. “Caduceus and I are really good at healing magic, you know. And we have this friend, Caleb-- you heard about him earlier-- he’s good at other magic and researching things and stuff. We’re gonna help you, okay?”


	3. compass points you anywhere (closer to me)

Across the world, Zuala frowns in response to Caleb’s question. “It has happened before,” she says. “That’s about as much as I know.”

 

Caleb nods. The lights above them flicker for an instant. “It has,” he says. “And there are people who have found that… stars aren’t… human, or any of the races of this world. Your body is not… like ours.”

 

“She looks like a human to me,” Beau says.

 

Caleb nods again. “But she is not. And there are those who have found that stars… can be used for one’s own gain. People who have become obsessed with the possibilities of the power of stars. People who are… not good.”

 

Nott’s eyes widen. “Caleb, you can’t mean…”

 

Caleb nods grimly. “I do.”

 

Zuala looks between the three of them, watching as their moods darken. She takes a deep breath. “What do you mean?”

 

“I have a past with a man who is…”

 

“A fucking asshole,” Beau supplies.

 

“Putting it lightly,” Nott adds.

 

Caleb gestures to them. “He was obsessed with the power of stars, for a while. But back then, no star fell. I do not know if he lost interest, but I can assure you… if he did see you or your other star fall…” In a blink, Frumpkin is draped over Caleb’s neck, offering comfort. “He will be after you.”

 

Zuala leans across the table. “Then we need to find Yasha fast,” she says. “She wouldn’t know.”

 

“No,” Caleb says. “She wouldn’t.” 

 

“Caleb, are you okay working on this?” Beau asks, frowning over at him. “No offense,” she says, gesturing to Zuala, “but we have no obligation to get involved in this.”

 

Caleb sighs heavily. “That man will go after Zuala and the other one. I am involved in this.”

 

Nott nods. “Then we are too. What do you need help with? Books? I can find you books.”

 

Caleb sighs again. “I’ll need some books, yes, but they would not be here. We made sure of that. But I know where we can get them.” He reaches up to pet Frumpkin between the ears. “I have a job for you, my friend.” 

 

\--

 

The town of Nicodranas sits on the western coast, a sprawling port town with ship traffic from both the air and the sea.

 

That night, as Zuala follows Caleb and the others anxiously around the library and Jester comforts a shell-shocked Yasha on the  _ Ball Eater,  _ a bird (that had been a cat an hour ago) carries a message towards the town.

 

The late hour means that most of the shops in Nicodranas are dark; most of the homes are as well.

 

However, a light still shines in a bakery nestled in the middle of one of the lesser known shopping streets of Nicodranas. In the kitchen, Eodwulf is finishing up the next day’s cookies, one hand expertly tracing arcane glyphs in the air to levitate ingredients around while the other stirs the bowl of dough. 

 

Astrid sits at the counter, watching with a raised eyebrow. “Need help there, Eod?” she asks, as she does almost every night. 

 

“Behind you,” Eodwulf says, and Astrid ducks as a bag of chocolate chips floats over her head. “I’m almost done.”

 

They’re interrupted by a tapping on the window, a falcon with a familiar orange ribbon tied around his neck rapping his beak against the glass. 

 

“Frumpkin?” Astrid asks, surprised. “What could Caleb want at this hour?” 

 

Eodwulf doesn’t look up from his cooking. “Maybe he’s planning on dropping by soon.”

 

Astrid lets Frumpkin in, quickly untying the note tied to his back. 

 

The note is written in their private code, which Astrid quickly begins to decipher. 

 

_ A+E; _

_ Have you been watching the sky?  _

_ A star crashed into the library tonight. She says another one is here, too. _

_ I am going to need those books-- if you could send them over. _

_ Beauregard says to send some sweets as well.  _

_ Stay safe.  _

_ C _

 

“Eod?” Astrid says as she looks up from the paper.

 

“Hm?”

 

“Where did we put the books on stars?”

 

This makes Eodwulf put his spoon down. “Why?” he asks.

 

She hands him the note, which he reads over.

 

A barely-perceptible hardness seeps into his posture. “With the other stuff,” he says. “Come on.” He tucks the note into his pocket.

 

Astrid offers Frumpkin a hand to land on and they hurry quickly towards the bakery’s basement.

 

\--

 

The mood on the  _ Ball Eater  _ is still somber as the sun rises. Jester had managed to get Yasha settled on a couch in Fjord’s cabin, where they’ve all gathered to talk as the crew wakes. 

 

While Yasha has calmed down, she’s still shaking, her mind racing. 

 

Jester has been filling Caduceus in on what happened, the two of them talking through magical solutions to Yasha’s problem.

 

“Did they hurt, Miss Yasha?” Caduceus asks.

 

Yasha shakes her head. “I didn’t feel anything,” she says. “They were just… like that.”

 

He nods, frowning. “I’d like to get a look at them, but I think that might be a lot for you right now. We can do that another time.” He looks over at Jester. “I think it might be time to contact the others and see if they can do some research.”

 

“That’s a good idea,” Fjord says. “We can stop the ship in Nicodranas and meet up with them at the library. If anyone could find out how to get her back, it’s Caleb.”

 

Jester nods. She looks over at Yasha. “Do you mind if I ask Caleb about it?”

 

Yasha shakes her head again. “Please,” she says, “if it will help, do it.” 

 

“Okay,” Jester says. Magic flares from her hands as she murmurs a spell. Fjord holds up his hands, starting to count her words. “ _ Caleb. What do you know about getting a star back up in the sky? We’re trying to help one. She fell tonight and she’s very--”  _

 

“That’s it,” Fjord says, cutting Jester off as the glow around her disappears. 

 

“And now we wait,” Molly says, looking between Jester and Yasha.

 

\--

 

Caleb is leaning over a book when the message arrives. Astrid and Eodwulf’s books were still, hopefully, on their way, but he was making do with what he had.

 

Jester’s voice interrupts him, a seriousness behind her usual upbeat energy.  “ _ Caleb. What do you know about getting a star back up in the sky? We’re trying to help one. She fell tonight and she’s very--”  _

 

He freezes with a page halfway turned. 

 

Zuala leans across the table anxiously. “Did you find something?” she asks.

 

He holds up a finger, marvelling at the likelihood of this. Zuala watches as his lips move and no words come out. The words are, instead, carried back to Jester.  _ Would that star be Yasha? Tell her Zuala is with me, looking for her. You will need to be careful. People could be after her. _

 

He looks up at Zuala. “We may have found your other star,” he says, setting his book aside.

 

\--

 

When Caleb’s response comes in, Jester’s quick to put the pieces together. Her eyes widen as she turns to Yasha.

 

“Oh my god, Yasha, is your lover named Zuala? Oh my god oh my god!”

 

Yasha blinks. “She’s-- yes, how do you…”

 

“She’s  _ with  _ Caleb, Yasha! She’s here too! Also people might be after you, I don’t know what that means but I’ll ask him, but…!”

 

Yasha’s tears begin to fall again for a different reason. Joy, relief, love, and so much more mix together in her heart as she smiles at Jester. “Zuala is… here?” 

 

Jester doesn’t reply, because she and the others are too busy staring at Yasha in amazement. 

 

With the grin that has spread across her face, Yasha’s hair has begun to glow with a soft white light. But what they are staring at isn’t her hair, it’s the faint glowing outline of wings--  _ feathered,  _ working wings-- that has begun to materialize behind her. 

 

“Yasha,” Jester gasps. 

 

The moment is broken as Yasha frowns in her direction. “Yeah?” she asks, her wings fading.

 

“Your wings, they were-- they were  _ there _ , like  _ there  _ there, they were glowing and had feathers and!! We didn’t even do anything, it just happened when you smiled!”

 

Yasha stares at her. “I… they were?”

 

Jester nods. “They’re gone now but… do you think if they saw each other Yasha’s wings would fix themselves?” The question is directed at Caduceus, who nods pensively.

 

“It could,” he says. “Getting the two of them together is the goal, I think.”

 

Yasha seems to have life in her for the first time since her wings failed her. “Did your friend tell you how Zuala got down here, Jester?”

 

Jester shakes her head. “He said she was looking for you.”

 

Yasha wipes at her tears. “For me…” she whispers. 

 

“This is very sweet, Jessie, but what did you say about people after Yasha here?” Molly asks. 

 

“Oh! I don’t know, Caleb said to be careful, one second--“ She mutters the spell again, Fjord reassuming his position of counter. 

 

“ _ Oh my god yes she is oh my god! Tell Zuala Yasha loves her very much, also what do you mean by people after her?” _

 

“That was the exact word count Jester, good job!” Fjord lowers his hands as Jester beams.

 

\--

 

Back at the library, Zuala is staring at Caleb in shock. “What do you mean ‘may have found her?’” Zuala asks. The light in the room brightens a bit, and it takes the others a moment to realize it’s from Zuala herself. 

 

“Our friends with the ship,” Caleb says, unfazed by the glowing. “Jester, one of them, she can send messages with magic. She just contacted me asking about stars. I asked her if it was your Yasha that she was with, but as it’s uncommon for a star to fall I think--“

 

He stops as another message crosses his mind. “ _ Oh my god yes she is oh my god! Tell Zuala Yasha loves her very much, also what do you mean by people after her?” _

 

Caleb holds a finger up as Zuala leans forward to ask him a question. “ _ The man from my past is obsessed with stars. You should head to Nicodranas and meet my friends at the bakery. We will meet you.” _

 

He looks back up at Zuala. “It is her, Jester says. She says to tell you Yasha loves you very much.” He looks to Beau and Nott. “I told them to meet us in Nicodranas. Astrid and Eodwolf--“ he stops mid sentence because of the blinding light that has begun to emanate from Zuala. 

 

Beau shields her eyes. “Jesus fucking Christ,” she says. “Are you trying to blind us?”

 

Zuala’s smile does not fade, but she manages to rein in the light shining from her, dimming to a pale glow. “I’m sorry, I just… we know where she is!” 

 

“We do,” Caleb says. “But we do not have everything figured out just yet. This man will be after both of you. And we still need to figure out how to get you back.”

 

“But that’s all secondary,” Zuala says. “We know where Yasha is, that’s all that matters.”

 

Caleb nods. “I suppose. My friends should be arriving soon, bringing the books we need. I suppose we’ll need to go straight back to their home, but…”

 

A knock on the door to the library section makes them all jump. 

 

“Beauregard,” Caleb says. “Give Zuala your cloak.”

 

Beau frowns. “What, why?”

 

“Just do it!” 

 

Beau holds her hands up. “Okay, okay,” she says, starting to pull the cloak off. 

 

Caleb stands. “Keep the hood up,” he tells Zuala as she shrugs on the cloak Beau hands her. She nods, pulling the hood over her head. 

 

Caleb opens the door, standing tall so that he’s blocking most of the view into the room. The others hear the voice that comes from the other side. “Oh, you’re the wizard with Beauregard,” the Cobalt Soul Monk says, trying to lean around Caleb. “Do you know anything about what happened in the courtyard?”

 

\--

 

Jester waits quietly until Caleb’s voice sounds in her head.  “ _ The man from my past is obsessed with stars. You should head to Nicodranas and meet my friends at the bakery. We will meet you.” _

 

“Okay okay okay,” Jester says, her leg bouncing up and down rapidly. “Caleb says to go to Nicodranas and meet Astrid and Eodwulf and they’ll meet us there. Because apparently Caleb’s past is involved in this and his bad teacher is obsessed with stars so we have to be careful, you know?”

 

Yasha frowns. “Careful how? Is Zuala in danger?”

 

“Probably less than we are,” Caduceus says. “Caleb and his friends can get her to the bakery very quickly. The issue is us getting there.”

 

“But we can, right?” Yasha asks. 

 

“Oh, of course we can,” Molly says. 

 

“We’ll just need to be a little bit careful,” Jester says. “But it’s okay-- it’s only a few days journey away on the ship from here, and we’ll be super careful the whole way and make sure no one finds out about Yasha. Just us four! And Caleb and Beau and Nott and Astrid and Eodwulf.”

 

“That’s nine,” Yasha says.

 

“Well, we are the Mighty Nein,” Caduceus says.

 

Yasha tips her head questioningly. 

 

“It’s the name our group uses,” Fjord explains. “Don’t think about it too hard.” 

 

Yasha nods. “Alright,” she says. “You’re sure Zuala is safe with your friends.”

 

Jester squeezes Yasha’s shoulder. “I’m sure,” she says. 

 

Fjord looks out the window at the rising sun. “I think we all need some sleep,” he says. “I’ll let the crew know where we’re headed, and we can all take part of today to rest up. Jester, you’ll set Yasha up in--”

 

“My room, I know,” Jester says. “Come on, Yasha, I’ll show you my sketchbook before we go to bed.”

 

\--

 

Back at the library, Caleb is still trying to block the monk from seeing inside.

 

“The courtyard?” Caleb asks. “The others fell asleep while I was researching, I am afraid none of us have been paying much attention to the world outside of here.”

 

Zuala is trying to watch Caleb in the door, so she’s a little caught off guard when Nott pulls her head down and lays it on the table. “Pretend to sleep,” Nott hisses, and Zuala sees Beau doing the same. 

 

She misses the monk’s response, but does hear Caleb’s. “It is destroyed? By what?” 

 

“There are mages from the Empire who believe that it was a star. Have you seen an unusual person around here, probably wearing all white, possibly glowing?”

 

“No, I have not. How could a star be a person?” Caleb asks. 

 

The monk sighs. “Alright, well, if you see anything let us know. We’ll be doing repairs out in the courtyard. Keep an eye out.”

 

“I will do that,” Caleb says. The door begins to creak closed. 

 

“Also,” the monk says, and the creaking stops. “Do you know anything about someone using the Cobalt Soul teleportation sigils? We came here to investigate someone using it and found the courtyard like that.”

 

“No,” Caleb says. “Was anyone there when you checked?”

 

“Not a trace of someone. Not even a magical trace of people being there. It’s rather alarming, if I’m honest.”

 

“Well,” Caleb says. “Perhaps it is time to increase your security. If you’ll excuse me, though, I need to get back to my books.”

 

“Of course, of course. As long as you have Beauregard with you, you can peruse as you wish. If you do see something, tell us.”

 

“I will do that,” Caleb says. The door closes with a click. 

 

Zuala, Nott, and Beau sit up as Caleb comes back to sit at the table.

 

“I see you’re still getting into trouble,” a voice says from the bookshelves. Zuala jumps, but the others seem unfazed. 

 

“Only as much as you are,” Caleb says, smiling as two figures-- Zuala assumes Astrid and Eodwulf-- step into the light. He goes over and the three of them share a hug. “It is nice to see you both.”

 

“I just wish it was under different circumstances.”

 

“Astrid, long time no see!” Beau says, standing too. She gives Astrid a hug as soon as Caleb lets her go, and then turns. “Did you bring me those cookies, ‘wulf?” she asks. She beams when he holds up a bag of cookies. 

 

Nott gives them each a hug as well, as Frumpkin the falcon flies over to land on Caleb’s shoulders. 

 

Zuala stands too. “You’re Caleb’s friends, I’m guessing?” she asks. 

 

“Is this her?” Astrid asks, looking Zuala up and down. 

 

Caleb nods. “ _ Ja.  _ I would not believe it if I had not seen her glow myself.”

 

Astrid holds out a hand. “I’m Astrid,” she says. 

 

“Zuala,” Zuala replies, taking the hand. “Thank you for your help.”

 

“Don’t worry about it,” Astrid says. She gestures over to her companion. “This is Eodwulf. We’re going to help keep you safe.”

 

Eodwulf waves. “Any word that he’s caught wind of this?” he asks Caleb.

 

“It would seem so. Could the two of you get us back to your shop?” Caleb asks. 

 

Astrid smiles in amusement. “After we just came all this way?”

 

Nott has perched on top of the table in order to be the same height as everyone else. “I’d like to go to Nicodranas,” she says. “I’ve got some business there.”

 

“Oh, Nott’s mystery boyfriend,” Beau says with a raise of her eyebrow.

 

“I do not have a mystery boyfriend!” 

 

“Sure,” Beau says.

 

Astrid and Eodwulf exchange a look that Zuala can’t quite pin down. “Eod, want to take this spell?” Astrid asks. 

 

Eodwulf nods. “Everyone grab hands,” he says. “Do you have everything you need from here? I wouldn’t recommend us sneaking in the way we did again.”

 

“I do,” Caleb says. There are a few books tucked under his arm. “The rest are the ones at your place.”

 

“Which I have here, by the way,” Astrid says, patting a bag on her waist. It looks empty, so Zuala assumes it must be magical. 

 

“Oh, good,” Caleb says. “I’ll start looking through those as soon as we get to safety.”

 

Eodwulf nods. “Everybody ready?”

 

“Where are we going to--” Zuala’s sentence is cut off as magic swirls up from the ground around the circle of them, and then they are pulled through the fabric of space itself.


	4. (separately) watch the day

Yasha and Jester have settled into the beds in Jester’s cabin after going through most of the pages in Jester’s sketchbook. 

 

In the dark, Yasha stares at the ceiling, thinking about the past day’s events.

 

Jester startles her by speaking up. “Yasha?”

 

“Yes?”

 

“What’s she like?” 

 

“Zuala?”

 

“Yeah.” Yasha can hear the sheets rustling in Jester’s bed. “You care about her a lot, right? But you’re not together or, you know, doing it, or anything. I guess I just want to know more about you and her.”

 

“Hm.” Yasha turns on her side, looking out into the darkness. “Well, she’s the brightest star in the eastern sky. She shines so beautifully and…” she lowers her voice to a whisper. “Want to know a secret?”

 

“Yeah!” Jester whispers back.

 

“I think that she shines brighter when I am there than when I’m not.” 

 

“What do you mean?”   
  


Yasha thinks for a minute. “Stars,” she says, “when we are happy we… we shine. You saw me do it earlier, remember?” 

 

“Oh! Yes! So when you’re with her…”

 

“I think she is happier than when I’m not. I am, too. I always shine brighter there, and I tend to fly faster when I’m going back to her than when I’m going away. It is… we have spent thousands of years together, Jester. She is the only star I ever spoke to. She has been the only one for me for… longer than you can conceive.”

 

“Oh, Yasha,” Jester says. “That’s so sweet! You really love her.”   
  


Yasha takes a minute to think about that. “I… suppose that’s what you would call it. I’ve never really had to call it anything. What we have, it’s… it’s the most special thing to me, I know that.”

 

“You really love her a lot,” Jester says. “You’re glowing again.”

 

Yasha gasps as she realizes that Jester’s right, the soft light coming from her brightening the dark room. “I guess I do. Talking about her makes me happy. I love her a lot, Jester. The thought of not seeing her, it’s…”

 

The glow begins to dim as Yasha brings this up. Jester is determined to change that, it seems. “You don’t have to not see her! She’s going to be safe and waiting for you when we get you to Nicodranas. And then you can run to her and hug her and kiss her and all that!”   
  


Yasha blushes, the glow coming back. “Kiss her,” she repeats. “I don’t know about that part. We didn’t have… forms, before. I’ve never kissed her-- or anyone.”

 

“You should! You’ve got to take the initiative, you know? You’ve been together for long enough, you could even propose to her!”

 

“Pro-- Propose?” Yasha splutters. 

 

“Yeah! Get married. Then you two are tied together no matter how far away you are, you know?”

 

“But that’s a… people thing,” Yasha says.

 

“You’re people right now, aren’t you?” Jester asks. 

 

“I guess,” Yasha says. “But I… I don’t even know if she feels the same way, Jester.” 

 

“She came down here to look for you, didn’t she?” Jester asks.

 

Yasha’s light shimmers a little brighter. “I guess she did,” she says. “I don’t know. I’ll think about it. We have a few days.”

 

“We do! I could help you find a ring or something if you want.”

 

“I might like that. We’ll see.”

 

Yasha hears Jester roll over. “I’m glad you have someone you love a lot. Goodnight, Yasha,” Jester says.

 

“Goodnight, Jester. Thank you for asking about Zuala.”

 

“Mhm!”

 

Yasha’s light doesn’t dim as she lays there thinking about seeing Zuala with a physical form, about actually talking to her right there in front of her, about  _ holding  _ her.

 

\--

 

Zuala stumbles a bit as the arcane magic drops them all off in Astrid and Eodwulf’s basement. The others seem used to this, immediately launching into action.

 

“You can stay down here and research,” Eodwulf tells Caleb. “I’ve got to go open the bakery. ‘strid’ll keep an eye and an ear out around town.” He looks over at Zuala. “I imagine you’re tired, we can set you up with a place to sleep.

  
“And we need to get you out of those robes, they’re a dead giveaway,” Astrid adds. “I’ve got some stuff that could probably fit you.”

 

“If you all don’t mind, I’m going to run some errands,” Nott says. Before anyone can say anything, she’s gone, hurrying up the stairs and out to who-knows where.

 

“Be back for lunch,” Caleb calls after her. “We need to all talk about some things.”

 

“Okay,” she calls back from the distance.

 

Zuala watches as Caleb begins to spread out the books on a table in this basement room. She doesn’t even notice Beau come up beside her until she speaks up.

  
“So,” Beau says, “you can keep the cloak if you want.” 

 

Zuala remembers that she’s wearing the cloak, going to take it off. “No, it’s okay,” she says. “I’ll just take the spare clothes from Astrid, I don’t want to take something you’re using--”

 

“Aw, fuck it,” Beau says. “It looks good on you anyway.”

 

“… you know I’m not interested, right?” Zuala asks.

 

Beau immediately backtracks. “Oh! Of course not, I wasn’t even suggesting-- Well, not that I  _ wouldn’t,  _ you look pretty fucking good, but I know you have Yasha and all that, and besides, I’m interested in girls but right now I might be interested in  _ a  _ girl--”

 

Zuala laughs. “I’m mainly joking with you, but I’ll keep that in mind,” she says.

 

Beau scratches the back of her neck sheepishly. “Anyway, I’ll let Astrid help you out with clothes. I’m not good at that stuff anyway. I’m going to help Caleb with this stuff down here and shit.”

 

“I’ll come back and help you guys after I get changed. You all are doing this for me, after all,” she says.  

 

Beau shrugs. “Caleb’s involved, and the others are too, and besides, we’d be pretty shitty people if we just put you out on the street or something.”

 

“But you could,” Zuala says. “And you’re not.”

 

Beau shrugs again. “I guess,” she says. 

 

Astrid pokes her head back down the stairs. Zuala hadn’t noticed her and Eodwulf go up. “Zuala, you coming? I’ve found clothes that might work.”

 

“Oh, yeah!” Zuala hurries to follow Astrid up the stairs. “I’ll come back and help you later,” she says to Caleb.

 

“ _ Ja,  _ that’s nice,” Caleb says absently.

 

She falls into step next to Astrid as they make their way up to the top floor of the bakery. “I said it before, but thank you for your help,” Zuala says. 

 

“It’s really nothing,” Astrid says. “C told you we have a… past with a man who might be after you, right?”

 

Zuala nods. “He mentioned something about it.”

 

Astrid sighs as she opens the door to a bedroom that Zuala assumes is hers. Some clothes have been laid out on the bed. “We were his students. We did… things that none of us really like to talk about. Thwarting him, helping you and your… girlfriend?”

 

Zuala shrugs. “We don’t really have a word for it,” she says. “Her name’s Yasha.”

 

“Helping you and Yasha,” Astrid says, “is kind of a way to set the world into a better balance, you know? Fix things a bit.”

 

“I guess,” Zuala says. She picks up a soft brown sweater, holding it up to the light. Astrid settles in a chair at the desk. “You don’t have to help me for that reason, you know.”

 

Astrid shrugs. “We know we don’t have to,” she says. “But we want to. And Beau and Nott and all them… if Caleb’s involved they’ll be too.”

 

“Besides, Yasha is with the rest of that group,” Zuala says. She pulls on the sweater quickly, appreciating the soft wool. 

 

“There’s a mirror behind the door in that wardrobe,” Astrid says, her back turned. “But yeah, the odds of you two crashing into the two halves of the Mighty Nein sure are something. I guess there’s something like fate guiding you, huh?”

 

Zuala shrugs, snagging a pair of darker trousers. “I don’t know,” she says. “I’m just glad it happened.”

 

“We all are,” Astrid says. “The world’s dangerous for stars.”

 

Zuala pauses as she opens the door to the closet and sees herself in the mirror. It’s strange, to see herself for the first time. The braided brown hair, the beads in it, the freckles. She tucks one loose strand of hair behind her ear and turns around quickly, closing the closet door. She wonders what Yasha will look like.

 

She grabs Beau’s cloak, shrugging it on over the sweater. She figures that it’ll be useful to have the hood when the time comes. 

 

“Can I help you put the rest of these away?” she asks, gesturing to the extra clothes on the bed when Astrid turns around. 

 

Astrid shakes her head. “I’m good. The guest room’s a door down. I think you should get some rest, who knows what the rest of the day will bring.”

 

“I think I’m going to go help Caleb and Beau, actually,” Zuala says. “I’m not tired.”

 

Astrid shrugs. “Suit yourself,” she says. “You could stop by the kitchen and see if Eod’ll let you bring some sweets down to them.”

 

Zuala smiles. “Thank you, Astrid.”

 

“No problem,” Astrid says, shooing Zuala down the stairs towards the kitchen.

 

\--

 

Yasha gives up on sleeping after what feels like hours lying awake. She quietly tiptoes out of the cabin she’s sharing with Jester, heading down the hallway to the kitchens. 

 

She finds Caduceus inside, talking to a man who looks like a giant turtle. She stops in the doorway to take the scene in.

 

“Oh, Yasha,” Caduceus says, making the other man turn his head. 

 

“Hi,” Yasha says softly. 

 

“Couldn’t sleep?” Caduceus asks. 

 

Yasha shakes her head. 

 

“Is this her?” the turtle man asks. 

 

“Oh! Yes, this is Yasha,” Caduceus says. He gestures to the man. “This is Orly. He’s our navigator.”

 

“Oh,” Yasha says. “Nice to meet you.”

 

Orly smiles. “N--” he seems hung up on the N, but gets past it. “Nice to meet you too. I’m going to go set up the route, alright Clay?”

 

Caduceus nods. “Thank you,” he says, and Yasha moves aside to let Orly go up on the deck. “Would you like some more tea, Yasha?” 

 

“That would be nice,” Yasha says, coming in to sit back at the table. She lets silence sit in the room for a few minutes, watching Caduceus. Finally, she sighs and sits back in her chair. “Caduceus?”

 

“Hm?”

 

“When you told me to think about what I’d do if Zuala was not up there anymore, if she was down here… did you… I don’t know, looking back… it seemed like you might have known that was the case or something.”

 

Caduceus turns to smile at her, leaning back against the counter. “Well,” he says. “It’s amazing what you notice when you pay attention to the little things in the world around you.” 

 

Yasha stares at him. “Why didn’t you say anything?” 

 

“Well, I wasn’t sure,” Caduceus says. “I just noticed another streak of light in the distance. It could’ve been my imagination.”

 

“That’s…” Yasha looks down. “I don’t understand you, Mr. Caduceus.” 

 

“I’m an open book, Miss Yasha.” Caduceus carries two teacups carefully over to the table, setting one in front of Yasha. 

 

She folds her hands around it, enjoying the warmth. “You really aren’t,” she says, shaking her head. “Jester is… much easier to understand.”

 

He smilies. “I wouldn’t be so sure,” he says. 

 

“See it’s things like that,” Yasha says. “It makes me think there are things I just… I don’t know… am missing in understanding you.”

 

Caduceus laughs. “There are things everyone is missing in understanding everything,” he says. “I wouldn’t take it to heart.”

 

\--

 

Zuala stops in the kitchen on her way downstairs, immediately a little overwhelmed by the level of activity. Eodwulf, she realizes, isn’t even  _ in  _ the kitchen, rather the ingredients and finished products seem to be floating around the kitchen by themselves. 

 

“Eodwulf?” she calls out tentatively. 

 

She gets nothing for a moment or two, and then his head pokes back into the kitchen. “Yes?”

 

“I was going to ask if there was anything I could bring downstairs for Caleb and Beauregard, but I think I’ll ask if  _ you  _ need anything instead.” 

 

Eodwulf smiles. “I’m alright,” he says. “If you can believe it, this is calm. There should be a tray of brownies over there--” he points vaguely. “You can cut some of those and bring them down if you want.”

 

Zuala smiles appreciatively. “Okay. If you do want help, give me a shout.”

 

“Thank you, Zuala,” Eodwulf says. “Let me know if our researchers downstairs like the brownies.”

 

“I will,” she says, ducking under a bag of flour. Eodwulf disappears back into the other room, and before she can even ask for a knife one sets itself down on the counter next to the tray of brownies.

 

She cuts a number of squares, bringing the platter with her out of the kitchen. “Thanks,” she calls back over to Eodwulf.

 

“No problem,” Eodwulf calls. She heads down the stairs, Beau and Caleb’s voice drifting up from the basement. 

 

“--the hell are we going to find someone who’s trained in that?” Beau is asking.

 

“I do not know, Beauregard,” Caleb says with an exasperated sigh. “We will manage to somehow. We can ask Astrid and Eodwulf if they know someone in town.”

 

“What are we trying to find?” Zuala asks, carrying the plate of brownies over to their table. Beau takes one the moment she sets it down, somehow managing to eat it grumpily.

 

“An alchemist,” Caleb says. “In order to get you and Yasha back to the sky, we would need the help of an alchemist.”

 

“Do you guys know one?” Zuala asks.

 

Beau shakes her head. “No fuckin clue.”

 

“We’ll find one,” Caleb says, shooting her a look. “Zuala, if you do want to help us, you can take that book.” Frumpkin, who is somehow a cat again, perches on top of the book Caleb points to.

 

“Oh, um, sure!” Frumpkin jumps off of the book as Zuala reaches for it, and she settles down at the table with Beau and Caleb.

 

\--

 

Yasha spends most of the next few hours on deck, hopping out of the way as crew members bustle around her, the ship in full swing on its trajectory towards Nicodranas. She did manage to catch Fjord at the helm, who informed her that they had a three day’s journey to Nicodranas, if they were lucky with the weather.

 

Finally, Mollymauk takes pity on her, appearing seemingly out of nowhere and looping his arm through hers. “Come on, star dear, I’m going to give you a tarot reading.”

 

“A what?” Yasha asks, letting him pull her towards his cabin.

 

“A tarot reading,” Molly says. She gives him a blank look. “You do know what tarot is, don’t you?”

 

Yasha shakes her head. “I don’t think we have it up there,” she says, pointing above them.

 

“Well then, this’ll be a lovely experience,” Molly says. He pulls a table out of… somewhere, and then a pair of stools, and gestures for her to sit as he spreads out a tablecloth.

 

“Will it hurt?”

 

Molly grins. “Only if I do it right,” he says with a wink. She can’t tell if he’s serious. He begins to shuffle a deck of cards with flair. 

 

“You really don’t have to do this,” she says, looking around the room.

 

“Nonsense,” Molly says. “I’m the one who rescued you from the deck up there, you have to let me read your cards.”

 

Yasha nods. “Okay,” she says. “What do I do?”

 

“Nothing,” Molly says. “I do the doing. Alright.” He stops suddenly, flicking the first card onto the table. 

 

“This card represents you,” Molly says, gesturing down at it. 

 

“The Moon?” Yasha asks. “But I’m a star.”

 

“Well,” Molly says. “All celestial things are in… harmony, you know? Besides, dear, is there any other meaning you can grab from that. I certainly can see it.”

 

Yasha tips her head. “What do you see?” 

 

“The Moon,” Molly says. “It shines by reflecting back the light of the sun, right?”

 

Yasha nods.

 

“Well, without its Sun, the Moon wouldn’t shine. Think about it.”

 

Yasha blinks a few times. Her mind wanders to Zuala. “Okay,” she says.

 

Molly smiles. “The next card is where you are headed.” The card slides across the table over the other one.

 

“The Anvil?” 

 

Molly stares at it and then laughs. “The last time I drew the Anvil for someone’s future was with Jester,” he says. He gestures grandly down at it. “A destiny forged,” he says. “You are headed towards something amazing. An anvil is used to create things, as you will be creating your future.”

 

Yasha reaches out and gently touches the card. “What kinds of things?” she asks.

 

“Hm?”

 

“An anvil, what is it used to make?”

 

“Oh,” Molly says. “Meatalwork and all that. I’m no expert. But it can make beautiful things.”

 

“Like rings?” Yasha asks, thinking back to her conversation with Jester. 

 

Molly nods. “I suppose,” he says. “Why, have an idea there?” 

 

Yasha shrugs. “I was just… I don’t know, Jester said some things.” 

 

“Well,” Molly says. “The cards do offer a little guidance. Let me see--” he flicks another card over. “The Eye,” he says, gesturing down. “Broadly speaking it means you’ve found what you’re looking for. You know it. But you might not  _ know  _ it yet.”

 

Yasha looks down at the card and then back up at him. “You are… a very mysterious person, Mollymauk.”

 

Molly grins. “Thank you, dear.”

 

“That seems to be the case with all of you.”

 

He shrugs. “We’re a hard bunch to follow,” he says. “Let’s see…” the next card falls into place. 

 

“That doesn’t look good,” Yasha says quietly.

 

“The Shadow. Darkness is following you, perhaps threatening you and what you hold dear. But…” another card, this one with the image of a shining silver dragon on it. “The Silver Dragon says in no uncertain terms that the good in you and those around you will prevail.”

 

Yasha frowns. “That seems… I don’t know, fanciful?”

 

“Well, I only say what the cards tell me, my dear.” Molly sweeps the cards off the table with a great gesture. “One more card,” he says. “Anything you’d like to know?”

 

“I…” Yasha hesitates. “I don’t know.”

 

Molly just watches her, tail flicking gently through the air.

 

She sighs. “Alright, well, do I ask the deck? Do I ask you?”

 

Molly shrugs. “Just ask,” he says.

 

“Okay,” she says. She leans across the table, lowering her voice a bit. “Zuala,” she says softly. “Will she and I be… happy?”

 

Molly nods, spreading the deck across the table. “No flair for this one,” he says. “Just pick the one that speaks to you.”

 

Yasha lets her hand linger over the cards for a moment before pointing to one of them. 

 

Molly nods, gathering up the rest of the cards and pulling that one from the deck in one fluid motion. He turns it, looking at it, and smiles. “I think I have your answer,” he says, setting the card on the table.

 

“The Star,” Yasha says softly. She looks up at Molly. “What does it mean?”

 

“Whatever it means to you,” Molly says. 

 

Yasha looks at the brilliantly shining star on the card and then back up to Molly. He seems content to shuffle the deck, minus the star, in silence, the cards moving quickly through his expert hands. 

 

“Mollymauk?” Yasha says after a few moments of silence. “Did you know stars shine brighter when they’re happy?”

 

“I didn’t,” Molly says.

 

Yasha picks up the Star card, running her fingers over the surface. “That star is shining very bright.”

 

“Well,” Molly says. “It must be a very happy star.”


	5. can't go a single day (without thinking of the words i'd say)

Zuala, Caleb, and Beau’s silent research is interrupted around lunch time by Astrid, Eodwulf, and Nott, who had returned at some point, bringing down a tray of food. 

 

“How’s the research coming?” Nott asks as a greeting. She looks happier than when she left in a way Zuala can’t quite peg down. 

 

“It’s… coming,” Zuala says. “Somewhat.”

 

“We need an alchemist,” Beau says. “A highly specialized one who we can trust with this. Which doesn’t fuckinig exist.” She sighs. “I’ve been inside and reading for too damn long, I’m sorry.”

 

Astrid puts a hand on her shoulder. “Want to spar with me after lunch, burn off some energy?”

 

Beau’s eyes light up. “That’d be great,” she says, suddenly full of life again. 

 

Nott, who had frozen when Beau had said “alchemist,” suddenly animates again as well, letting out a long, heavy sigh. “I might know a guy,” she says, grabbing a sandwich and stuffing it in her mouth. 

 

“You  _ might _ know a guy?” Zuala asks. 

 

“Yeah, I might know a guy,” Nott says, blushing a little. “Okay, I do know a guy, but… well…”

 

“Oh, that’s right, he’s an alchemist isn’t he,” Astrid says absently. Eodwulf nudges her a second too late.

 

Nott stares at them. “You know?”

 

Astrid shrugs. “I mean he came into the bakery one day and we kind of put the pieces together. We didn’t tell anyone or anything we just… yeah, we knew.”

 

Nott stares at them, looking like she’s taking an immense amount of mental energy to process this. “Okay,” she says finally. She turns to Caleb and Beau. “I’m sorry I haven’t told you this til now,” she says, “but I have a husband and son.”

 

Caleb and Beau stare at her.

 

She waves her hand vaguely in the air in front of them, making neither of them break. “Fuck,” she says. “See, this is why I didn’t want to-- it’s complicated, okay? Before I was me I was… well,  _ really  _ me. I was a halfling woman, not a goblin, and my name was Veth. Veth Brenatto.” She sighs. “And then a lot of things happened-- it’s a long story, really-- but I got turned into this…” she gestures up and down her form. “I even hid from Yeza and Luc for a while--”

 

“Wait  _ that  _ alchemist is your husband?” Beau asks. “That’s where Jester’s mom recommends getting healing stuff!”

 

Nott nods. “Yeah,” she says. “You guys came into the shop while I was there once. I had to hide  _ quick.” _

 

“I do not quite… a husband?” Caleb asks. 

 

Nott nods again. She climbs up onto the table, going to stand in front of Caleb. She pulls his forehead down to press against hers. “I’m sorry I didn’t tell you, Caleb, I just… we work in a really dangerous field you know? I didn’t want someone to figure out who I was and hurt them. So I kept it a secret from everyone… I wish I could have told you. I wish you could’ve met Luc earlier, my son, he’s going to love you. You’ll have to teach him lots of things, he’s a very bright boy, he’d love to learn from you.”

 

Caleb pulls back. “Nott, slow down,” he says gently. “You have… a son?”

 

“Luc,” Nott says. “He’s five.”

 

“And a husband?”

 

“Yeza, the alchemist.”

 

Caleb takes a deep breath. “Okay,” he says. 

 

“Okay?” Nott asks. 

 

“Okay.”

 

“Okay.” Nott gives him a quick hug, turning to the rest of them. “He’ll probably be able to help with whatever we need. I can go get him?”

 

“He can work down here,” Eodwulf says. “We have all the equipment.”

 

Beau shakes her head in amazement. “Nott has a family.”

 

Zuala, feeling a little out of this whole revelation as she’s only known Nott for a few hours, sits back in her chair. “I can come with you, Nott,” she offers. “Help you and your husband carry anything special that he needs back over here.”

 

Nott nods. “That way Caleb can keep reading and Astrid and Beau can spar and Eodwulf can…?”

 

“I have a bakery to run,” Eodwulf says. “I have plenty to do.”

 

“Eodwulf can single-handedly make sure we all have a place to stay…”

 

“I help!” Astrid says, which earns an eyebrow raise from Eodwulf and a laugh from everyone else.

 

\--

 

Jester is awake by the time Yasha follows Molly back onto the deck, and she lights up when she sees the two of them. 

 

“There you are! Fjord said he didn’t know where you two went and I wasn’t sure what to think about that, I couldn’t find you anywhere!”

 

“I was giving Yasha a reading,” Molly says. “Do you remember when I pulled the Anvil for your future?” 

 

Jester nods. “And the Moon, and the… dragon? And the Eye!” 

 

“Good memory,” Molly says. “Yasha’s cards came up similar.” He smiles. “I wonder why.”

 

“Your cards certainly show that we’re all working towards some kind of destiny,” Caduceus says. Yasha hadn’t even noticed him. “I’ll have to get another reading from you another time.”

 

“For you? Any time,” Molly says with a wink. He takes a deep breath, turning his face towards the sun. “I’m going to go get some sun, I think,” he says. “If you can’t find me I’m laying on the deck.”

 

“Okay, have fun Molly!” Jester says.

 

Yasha turns to her, putting a hand lightly on her elbow. “Jester? Can I talk to you?” 

 

Jester nods. “Of course, Yasha. Come on, let’s go to my cabin where no one else is allowed.” The end is louder than the beginning of her sentence, as she proclaims it with emphasis. 

 

Yasha waves a sheepish goodbye to Caduceus and Fjord and then follows Jester back below deck. Jester flops onto her bed, rolling over to look at Yasha. “What’s up?” she asks. 

 

“Well, I… remember what you said last night?’

 

“I said lots of things last night!”

 

Yasha nods. “Well, about…” she lowers her voice. “Proposing.”

 

“Oh!” Jester rolls all the way onto her stomach. “Yeah?”

 

“What would I… how?” Yasha wrings her hands together nervously. “I don’t really know how it works. And… I don’t know, if I-- it has to be perfect.”

 

“Oh,  _ Yasha _ ,” Jester says excitedly. “Are you gonna do it?”

 

Yasha swallows. “I… I’ve known her for thousands of years, Jester. She means more to me than anyone. Ever. I think… I don’t know… the worst that can happen is she says no, right?”

 

“She won’t say no!” Jester says. “Okay okay okay, we’ll need lots of things, just for the proposal. You’re gonna need a ring--”

 

“How do you know?” Yasha interrupts.

 

“That you’ll need a ring? That’s how you propose!”

 

“No, um… you said she wouldn’t say no.”

 

Jester blinks. “Oh! Well, you spent a thousand years with her. She spent a thousand years with you. Obviously she must love you very much.”

 

“Oh,” Yasha says. “I guess I… didn’t think of it like that.”

 

Jester beams. “That’s alright,” she says. “That’s why I’m here!”   
  


Yasha nods. “Thank you, Jester,” she says, still turning over the concept in her head.

 

\--

 

Zuala finds herself walking through the streets of Nicodranas with Nott. The business is intriguing, everywhere something new to see. She tries to focus in on Nott beside her.

 

“So, Nott?” she asks.

 

“Hm?” Nott looks up, hopping over a crate of… something… in the middle of the road. 

 

“Your husband…” 

 

“Hm?”

 

“Do you mind if I ask you something about him?”

 

Nott raises an eyebrow. “You can ask. I don’t have to answer.”

 

“Well, of course not,” Zuala says. “Alright. How did you know? That he was the one, I mean.”

 

Nott looks thoughtful. “Well,” she says. “I just… knew. He was always such a sweet man, and it just seemed right. We kissed as a dare, but there was something real there, you know? And then we just kept coming back to each other, and so eventually we got married and had Luc.” She shrugs. “I know I picked right because I wouldn’t have it any other way, you know? It wouldn’t be the same without any other person.”

 

Zuala nods. “I… get that,” she says. 

 

“Are you thinking about settling down yourself?” Nott asks.

 

“Well, I haven’t even spoken to Yasha yet,” Zuala says. She looks down. “But maybe.”

 

Nott gives her a sideways glance. “Can an old seasoned wife like me give you some advice?”

 

“You’re hardly old compared to me, but go ahead,” Zuala says.

 

“That’s a challenge,” Nott says. “Okay, how old are you. You don’t look a day over 24, and I’m 25, at least, it’s a little foggy, so I must be--”

 

“Hundreds of thousands of years,” Zuala interrupts. “More than that, probably. It’s hard to keep count.”

 

Nott stares at her. “Okay. You win.”

 

Zuala grins. “But, if you consider time spent  _ here _ , I’m less than a day old. So feel free to give that advice.”

 

“If this Yasha person does want to go back up into the sky, don’t just go up there for her.” She holds up a finger to stop Zuala from interrupting. “No matter how much you love her, if you love being a person and being able to explore, and you give it up for her, you will eventually resent her, and that will be good for neither of you.”

 

Zuala fiddles with a loose string on Beau’s cloak. “But I wouldn’t be happy down here without her.”

 

“Then  _ tell  _ her that,” Nott says. “Oh, we’re here.”

 

Zuala wants to say something, because this conversation feels far from over, but Nott throws open the alchemy shop’s doors with a loud “honey?!” and the chance is gone.

 

A small, slightly disheveled man, who must be Yeza, comes rushing out of the back, an even smaller kid following at his heels. “Oh! You’re back so soon!” he throws his arms around her, his smile wide.

 

“Mommy,” the kid-- Luc, Zuala remembers-- says, and Nott kneels down in front of him. He holds out a vial, which Nott takes and turns over in her hands. 

 

“Did you make this, Button?” she asks. 

 

“Yeah, I did everything except the fire.” 

 

Nott beams. “I’m so proud of you,” she says. She looks up at Yeza, who mouths something to her that Zuala can’t make out. “This is an incredible first healing potion. I think I’m going to have to seal it up and hang it on the wall.”

 

Yeza finally spots Zuala, still standing in the entrance to the shop. “And who’s this?” he asks, gesturing her way.

 

“Oh,” Nott says. “I, um, need your help. We should go in the back.” She turns back to Luc. “Can you run over to the Shusters and see if you can hang out there for the afternoon?”

 

Luc nods. “I’ll see if Kiri wants to go adventuring again,” he says. 

 

“Don’t adventure too far, though,” Nott says. 

 

“I know!” Luc breezes past Zuala on his way out the door, only pausing for a second to look up and wave before rushing on by.

 

Nott stands back up, taking Yeza’s hand in hers. “Let’s go,” she says, gesturing to the back.

 

“This seems serious,” Yeza says with a slight nervous laugh. 

 

“It’s just secret,” Nott says. The three of them head into the back room and Nott closes the door. “So,” she says. “Do you know anything about fallen stars?”

 

\--

 

Jester must have shown Yasha a thousand rings in the span of an hour. Yasha isn’t even sure where she’s getting them all. 

 

“Oh!” Jester says, as Yasha is examining one of them. “We don’t know what size her fingers are!” 

 

Yasha blinks. “Is that important?”

 

“Yeah it is! How else is the ring gonna fit?” Jester asks. 

 

“Well, we don’t have her finger to measure,” Yasha says. “What are we going to do?”

 

Jester thinks for a moment. “I know!” she says. “I’ll see if Beau can measure for us.”

 

“Won’t that be obvious? What we were planning?”

 

“I’ll tell her to be super discrete,” Jester says. “Zuala won’t even know.”

 

“If you’re sure,” Yasha says. She puts the ring down on the table. “I guess looking right now is kind of silly then.”

 

“Only a bit,” Jester says. 

 

“Would you like me to count the words in your message for you like Fjord was?” Yasha asks.

 

Jester shakes her head. “I’ve got it,” she says, and Yasha watches as the magic begins to glow from her again. “ _ Beau! I need you to do something super secretly for me, okay? I need you to Measure Zuala’s ring finger ring size. But she can’t know! So be--!”  _ Jester frowns as the magic fades away. 

 

(Miles away, Astrid knocks Beau on her ass as the message distracts her for just a moment too long. Grumbling, Beau lets Astrid help her back up and then replies to Jester’s message.)   
  


_ “...Okay? But you’ll need to cast the spell again later tonight then. She can’t know I’m asking or she can’t know why I’m asking?” _

 

Yasha sees Jester frown and then summon the spell up again. “ _ She can’t know why! Be super super suuuuuuuper stealthy okay Beau? I know you can do it. I’ll check back in tonight. Remember, super secret!”  _

 

_ “Yeah, super secret,”  _ Beau replies.

 

Jester beams at Yasha. “And now we wait,” she says. “And while we wait we can pick out fancy clothes for you to wear when you do it!”

 

Yasha fidgets with the white coat she’s already wearing. “You know, you don’t have to do all this,” she says. 

 

“I want to,” Jester says. “You just have to promise to invite me to your wedding, okay?”

 

“Oh, of course I will, Jester,” Yasha says. “You will be the guest of honor.”

 

“That’s silly,” Jester says. “You and Zuala will be that.”

 

“Okay,” Yasha says. “But we’re the ones getting married, so you’ll be the guest part of that.”

 

Jester smiles. “I could be your bridesmaid,” she says. “Or even your maid of honor, if you wanted me to.”

 

“What’s made of honor?” Yasha asks.

 

“ _ Maid  _ of honor,” Jester says. “It’s like the most important person in helping you run everything, you know? Your best best friend.”

 

Yasha smiles. “Well then, you would be my maid of honor,” she says. “You’ve basically made the idea of this happen.”


	6. draw my sword (with the morning sun)

After explaining to Yeza why they needed him, Zuala helps as him and Nott pack up an assortment of alchemy supplies. 

 

At one point, she finds herself alone in the room with Yeza. She’s quietly working on packing up a number of ingredients while he figures out the best way to pack the fragile equipment he needs to bring. 

 

“Miss Zuala?” Yeza asks, making her jump. “Could you help me with this for a moment?” 

 

“Oh, yeah, of course.” She crosses the room hurriedly. Yeza is standing by a number of tubes assembled over a table. 

 

“Could you carefully take this down from there? You’re stronger than I am and larger and this is all glass.”

 

Zuala nods. “Does it go in that box?” she asks.

 

“Yeah,” he says. He watches her carefully lift the whole assembly and place it in the box. “So Veth said that you’re trying to get back to someone?” 

 

“Veth?” Zuala asks. 

 

“Nott. I always forget that that’s the name she uses with the Mighty Nein.”

 

“Oh. Yeah. I’m trying to get back to my… to someone who means a whole lot to me. She’s the reason I came down here in the first place.”

 

Yeza smiles. “It makes sense that Veth’d want to help you,” he says. “Her and her big heart for people like her.”

 

“People… like her?” 

 

Yeza nods. “Well, see, Veth wasn’t always…” he gestures vaguely. “It’s complicated. I thought she was dead for a while.”

 

“Dead?!”

 

“Dead. But she came back.”

 

“People can do that?” Zuala asks.

 

Yeza smiles. “Not always. But Veth’s special. She’d been working all the time to come home, but she came and found me when I got into some… trouble.” He rubs at his wrists absently. “Anyway, just forgive her if she has strong feelings about all this. Seeing you working so hard to get back to the person you love is probably stirring something up for her.”

 

Zuala thinks back to her conversation with Nott on the walk over, nodding slowly. “Thank you,” she says. “I’ll keep that in mind.”

 

Yeza beams. “And I’ll do my best to help you too, of course! The idea of this mixture is… fascinating to say the least, it’ll be so interesting to see how the ingredients work together to create the result we need--” Zuala tries to keep up as his pace picks up “--and I’m sure a lot of it is in the process of making it itself, perhaps I’ll need to ask some of the magically inclined among the Mighty Nein to help infuse--” 

 

His sudden explosion of words is cut off by the door slamming open. Nott marches in, a grin on her face, with Astrid and Beau in tow. “I brought the muscle,” she says, pointing back at the slightly bewildered pair. 

 

“Perfect, we just finished up here!” Yeza quickly seals up the box that Zuala had just filled, adding it to a stack. “Now,” he says, dusting off his hands and turning to the others. “You’re going to need to be very careful with these. They’re fragile!”

 

Beau sighs. “Okay, okay,” she says, bending down to pick up the nearest box. “Are these all going back or--”

 

“Yes of course they’re all going back,” Nott interrupts, batting the back of her knee gently. “Use your brain, Beauregard!”

 

“Jeeze, I was just asking,” Beau says, rolling her eyes. 

 

Astrid shakes her head in amusement. “You know, I could probably teleport the whole collection back with us without cracking anything.” A smile crosses her lips. “Probably.”

 

Zuala looks between them. “Is everything around you guys always this chaotic?” she mutters to herself as she goes to grab a box. Yeza, beside her, laughs. 

 

“Oh, yes it is,” he says, also grabbing a box. “I think we can manage to carry it, if we all pitch in! There’s only eight boxes, and there are five of us!”

 

“ _ Eight  _ boxes? How much stuff do you need?!” Beau asks.

 

Yeza grins. “Well, the beauty of it is that I’m not entirely sure! I could need all of it or none of it or different things altogether, it’ll all depend on the recipe and the instructions and how the ingredients work together and, oh, it’ll be--”   
  
Nott cuts him off with a kiss on the cheek. “Honey, slow down, you’re making everyone else’s heads spin with that wonderful brain of yours.”

 

Yeza flushes, handing his box to her and going to grab another. “Well,” he says, clearing his throat. “We should get going, then!”

 

\--

 

Jester and Yasha move on from rings to outfits, and then, when Yasha has trouble deciding on anything that she likes, Jester has the brilliant idea that they should try to make cupcakes so that Yasha can give Zuala some homemade treats when they meet again.

 

Yasha is a little reluctant, but Jester is insistent, pulling her excitedly in the direction of the kitchen.

 

“Mr. Caduceus tends to use the kitchen, right? Will he be mad?” Yasha asks.

 

Jester shakes her head. “Caduceus won’t mind, don’t worry! He’ll love the cupcakes-- everyone loves cupcakes!”

 

Yasha lets herself be pulled along until Jester until they finally come to a stop in front of the semi-familiar kitchen door.

 

What Yasha didn’t realize, when she agreed to this, was that Jester having a recipe and ingredients and a basic idea of how cooking works didn’t equate to her knowing what she was doing in the kitchen.

 

She only realizes this, of course, when Jester decides the best way to get the batter mixed well was to use a sparkle of magic to rotate the spoon rapidly through the bowl, sending a puff of flour mixture into the air. 

 

Yasha coughs as it hits her face, reaching up to wipe it out of her eyes. “Jester,” she manages between coughs, turning to find that Jester isn’t even looking at the bowl, which is now spinning with the spoon’s force, but rather rooting through the cupboard to try to find something. 

 

“Yeah, Yasha?”

 

“Your magic is cool, but maybe… could I stir?”

 

“Oh!” Jester turns, the bowl coming to a stop inches before it spins itself off the counter. “Sure, you can stir-- how’d you get flour all over your face, Yasha?”

 

Yasha wipes the powder away from the area around her eyes, leaving two large circles around them. “It puffed up,” she says. 

 

“It’s all over the counter, too! Yasha!” Jester hurries over to the bowl, peering inside. “Oh good, there’s still enough in here.”

 

Yasha looks around at the various open containers, now covered in a dusting of flour, the egg shells scattered on the counter with some egg dripping from them, the splashes of other kinds of spices and liquids, and realizes that perhaps Jester was wrong and Caduceus  _ would  _ mind. 

 

Jester seems unbothered, turning to dust some flour out of Yasha’s hair. “You want to mix this while I get started on the icing?” she asks.

 

Yasha nods, grabbing the spoon. 

 

By the time the sun sets over the seemingly endless water, Yasha and Jester’s attempt at cupcakes has left even more of a disaster in the kitchen of the ship. 

 

Yasha, half covered in flour, watches anxiously over Jester’s shoulder as Jester, with a baking mitt on either hand, carefully maneuvers a tray of cupcakes out of the oven.

 

It’s around this time that Caduceus, humming softly to himself, arrives to make dinner and discovers the state of the kitchen. “Oh,” he says, stopping short in the doorway. “Oh my.”

 

Yasha dips her head to him sheepishly. “Sorry,” she says.

 

Jester turns with a grin, holding up the tray. “We made cupcakes, Caduceus!”

 

“I--” Caduceus looks around the room. “I see that.”

 

“We’ll clean up,” Yasha says quickly.

 

Caduceus smiles. “No, it’s okay,” he says. “I’ll help.”

 

Yasha watches him set his cup of tea down on the counter, rolling up his sleeves. “You’re used to this, aren’t you?” she asks. 

 

He nods. “Jester makes delicious sweets,” he says. “The kitchen is often a casualty.”

 

Jester grins as she sets the tray down. She’s not quite as covered as Yasha, but the smears of flour and batter on her face and clothes are still impressive. “See,” she says, “Caduceus doesn’t mind!”

 

\--

 

As soon as they get back to the bakery, Yeza and Caleb end up leaned over a number of books, talking between themselves so fast that Zuala’s head is spinning. 

 

To her surprise, Beau is keeping up with them easily, throwing out her own theories for what different things mean and how certain things could work.

 

Astrid notices the look on Zuala’s face, reaching over to squeeze her shoulder. “Hey,” she says, “I was thinking, it’s important you know how to protect yourself. Want me to teach you how to fight?”

 

Zuala blinks a few times. “Oh! Sure, that’d be… probably smart. Since Yasha and I are in danger and all.”

 

Beau looks up at this. “Hey, if you’re gonna fight, let me help teach. Also, let me measure you for some hand wraps, so you don’t bruise your hands.”

 

Astrid goes to say something, but is cut off by a look from Beau. “That’d be nice,” Zuala says, not sure what the exchange means. 

 

Beau and Astrid take her upstairs, Beau carefully measuring around each of her fingers and hands before disappearing into one of the rooms. She comes out a few minutes later with a few wraps, showing Zuala how to properly wrap them around her hands and wrists. 

 

“Okay,” Beau says, stepping back and dusting off her hands. “What kind of weapon are we thinking here? I go for a staff--” she pulls the one strapped across her back out, spinning it through the air.  “--or my fists.”

 

“I tend to go for daggers or a whip, but I’m trained in most weapons, so I could teach you any,” Astrid adds.

 

“Are there a lot of options?” Zuala asks, a little out of her element. 

 

Astrid grins. “Of course,” she says. “Here, I’ll show you.” She leads Beau and Zuala over to a door in the wall of the training room behind the bakery, pulling it open to reveal a large collection of various blades and weapons. 

 

“Woah,” Beau says, “I didn’t know you had all these.”

 

“You never asked,” Astrid says with a wink. 

 

Beau laughs. “Fair, we tend to be more hands on.” 

 

Zuala traces the long wooden handle of a weapon, running her finger along the flat part of the small blade at the end. 

 

“Oh, the spear?” Astrid asks, reaching over to pull it out of the hooks its resting on. “Nice one.” She leans it against the wall. 

 

“Is it a hard one to learn?” Zuala asks, watching Astrid close the door to the closet. 

 

Astrid shrugs. “We aren’t looking for you to be a master fighter,” she says. “Just able to stab things away from you. A spear’ll do the job, easy. Before we do any weapons, though, let’s test your reflexes. Will you spar with one of us?”

 

Zuala nods. “I’m not sure I’ll be very good, but okay.”

 

Astrid smiles. “Alright, I’d like to watch, so…”  there’s a glimmer in her eye as she turns to Beau. “Would you?”

 

Beau grins, gesturing for Zuala to follow her to the middle of the room. “Ready?” she asks, getting up on her toes and stepping lightly back and forth. Zuala frowns, taking a small step back. 

 

“Why do I feel like I’m not sure what I’m getting into,” Zuala says. She tries to mimic Beau’s stance. 

 

Astrid stands against the wall, watching. “Alright,” she says. “We aren’t aiming to hurt, remember,” she gives Beau a look. Beau nods.

 

“I know, I know,” Beau says. 

 

“And you can always tap out, alright Zuala?” Astrid says. 

 

Zuala nods. “Yeah, okay.”

 

“On three, then,” Astrid says. “One, two… three!”

 

\--

 

After Yasha helps Caduceus make food, largely out of guilt for delaying him with the dirty kitchen, she, Caduceus, Jester, Fjord, and Mollymauk sit down for dinner together.

 

As they finish up, Jester rushes over to grab the tray of cupcakes, setting them down in the middle of the table. “Yasha and I made cupcakes!”

 

“Cupcakes?” Fjord, asks, peering at the tray. 

 

Jester beams. “I was teaching Yasha how to make them. Try one, Molly!”

 

Molly grabs one of them, unwrapping it and taking a small bite. “Oh, blueberry! Delicious, Jester.”

 

Caduceus takes a large bite of his while Yasha slowly unwraps the paper around the bottom of hers. 

 

She’s surprised by how good it is after the disaster in the kitchen earlier, but she can’t help but grin as she holds up the rest of the cupcake. “It really is.”

 

Fjord seems a little more hesitant to eat his. Jester gives him a look. “It’s delicious Fjord, try it!”   
  


“I’m not one for cupcake-- okay, okay,” he says as Jester pushes one into his hands. 

 

Yasha sits back and watches the others chat and bicker about the cupcakes. She smiles as she realizes how close they really are, as Molly says something that makes Fjord flush and Jester laugh. Fjord sheepishly eats his cupcake as the conversation continues around him.

 

“A little overwhelming sometimes, aren’t they?” Caduceus asks quietly, taking a sip of the tea he’d made for the table.

 

“Oh,” Yasha says. “Um, a little. I was just thinking. You all are… very close.” 

 

Caduceus smiles. “Oh, yes. We’ve done a lot together.”

 

“Kicked a lot of ass together!” Jester cuts in with a grin. 

 

“ _ Got _ \--” Molly starts, but Fjord stops him with a look. 

 

Yasha smiles. “It’s nice,” she says. She looks down into her cup of tea, thinking about all the families Zuala used to tell her about. “To see, I mean,” she says quickly. 

  
“You’ll be one of us soon enough,” Molly says with a smile.

 

“You  _ are  _ one of us, Yasha!” Jester says. She beams, reaching up to dust some leftover flour out of Yasha’s braids.

 

Yasha flushes a little. “Thank you,” she says quietly.

 

\--

“Good,” Astrid says from where she’s leaning next to the spear against the wall, watching Zuala jab a training spear once more in Beau’s direction. It’s been a day since their training sessions have started, and she’s been working Zuala (and thus Beau) hard. 

Beau ducks to the right, which Zuala has watched her do enough times to know how to compensate, swinging the spear around to block her movement. Beau spins out of the way just fast enough, falling back to pause, breathing heavily. 

Astrid stands up, grinning. “Okay,” she says. “Let’s stop for now. It’s getting to be lunch time.”

Zuala wipes sweat off her face, setting the spear down. “Thanks,” she says. “For spending your day teaching me and all.”

Beau grabs the waterskins that are sitting on the floor against the wall, tossing one too Zuala. “If it does come down to a fight,” she says, “it’ll be a lot easier for us if we’re not worried about you getting overwhelmed.”

“Yeah, obviously you’re not going to be throwing yourself headfirst into combat,” Astrid says, “but if you do get into a scrape against… pretty much anyone other than Beau here, who’s been learning your movement patterns all day, you should be able to defend yourself.”

“So we’re done training?” Zuala asks. 

Astrid laughs. “No,” she says. “We’re done for  _ now. _ I want you to be able to fend us both off, if it comes down to it.”

Zuala stares at her. “At once?”

“If anyone can kick you into shape to do that in a short period of time, it’s her,” Beau says. 

“Somehow I believe it,” Zuala says. “I almost had Beau today, after all.”

Beau laughs. “You wish you almost had me.”

“Oh, no, she did,” Astrid says. “There were a number of close calls, don’t pretend there wasn’t.” 

Zuala grins as Beau shoves Astrid’s shoulder. 

“Shall we go see how Caleb and Yeza are getting on?” Astrid asks. “I’m sure Eod’s going to be calling everyone for lunch soon.”

“Could I borrow a change of clothes again?” Zuala asks. “These are all sweaty.” 

“Of course,” Astrid says. “Beau, you want to close the room up? We’ll meet downstairs?”

“Sounds like a plan,” Beau says.

\--

The day after the cupcake making fiasco, Yasha watches the clouds move through the sky from the deck of the ship, closing her eyes in the cool breeze. 

Beau had reported back to Jester with Zuala’s ring size, which she apparently managed to sneak while measuring Zuala for sparring wraps. There were only a few rings that Jester had in the right size, and of them, Yasha picked a simple ring made of woven silver with a small purple gem in the middle. 

_ “It looks like your eye, Yasha!” Jester had said, holding it up to Yasha’s face. Yasha had blushed as she took the ring from Jester.  _

_ “Maybe it’ll make her think of me, then,” Yasha had replied. _

She reaches into her pocket to touch it, turning it around the tip of her thumb. 

“Hey, Yasha!” Fjord calls across the deck, making her jump. She turns to see him and Mollymauk standing by the wheel, waving for her to come over to them. 

She hurries over. “Do you need something?” she asks, tucking the pocket with the ring in it closed. 

“Well,” Mollymauk says, his hand resting easily on one of the curved swords at his belt. “We were thinking, do you know how to use a sword?”

“After Jester said that Zuala was learning how to fight, it made us think that might be a good thing to teach you, too,” Fjord adds. “Just in case.”

“Oh,” Yasha says. She looks at Molly’s swords. “No, I’ve never used one before. I think yours might be a little… small?” 

Molly laughs. “Only the swords. I don’t have to compensate for anything.” He gestures towards Fjord. “He’s got experience fighting with a larger blade. He can teach you.”

“Volunteering me?” Fjord asks. He thinks for a second. “I think we have a sword that’d work somewhere. Remember the one we took off those pirates?” he asks Molly. “Who has it?”

“Oh, the big one?” Molly thinks for a second. “I think it’s being used as a coat hanger in your office.”

“I think you’re right,” Fjord says. “Yasha, could you go grab it? Molly will show you where.”   
  


“Oh, um… okay,” Yasha says, “sure. Am I stealing your coat rack?”

Fjord laughs. “I’ll find a new one. Molly?”

Molly gestures for Yasha to follow him. “Once we grab the sword, we’ll show you a few tips to use it,” he tells her. “Though, most people will probably just step aside at someone of your size holding a huge ass sword.”

“Really?” Yasha asks, ducking into the captain’s quarters after him. Molly starts pulling coats off a hanging collection of them in the corner, throwing them over a chair. After a number of various coats, a sword emerges from the pile. 

“Oh, yeah,” Molly says. He lifts the sword with some effort, handing the hilt to Yasha, who picks it up more easily. “You’re an intimidating one, all tall and brooding.”

“Brooding?” Yasha asks. “What makes me brooding?”

Molly shrugs. “You just look it. Don’t worry, it works for you!”

Yasha hesitates. “Say, Molly?” 

“Hmmm?”

“Remember… the reading?” 

“The one I did for you yesterday?” Molly asks.    
  


“Yeah,” Yasha says. “The Anvil? Making rings?” She reaches into her pocket, pulling out the band. “Jester suggested… giving this to Zuala.”

Molly peers at the ring. “It’s a pretty one,” he says. “Is that one of the magic ones?”

“Magic ones?” Yasha asks. “You have those?”

Molly nods. “I’d say we could have Caleb detect magic on it, but he’s with her. We’ll figure it out later, have him do it once you give it to her or something.”

“Huh,” Yasha says. “Okay.” 

He gestures for her to follow him out the door. “Anyway, let’s get back to Fjord,”


	7. i wanna find a home (and i wanna share it with you)

Zuala and Astrid end up running into Eodwulf as he carries a number of trays of sandwiches downstairs. Zuala quickly takes a few of them from him.

 

“Oh, thanks,” Eodwulf says, smiling appreciatively as Astrid holds the door. 

 

They’re met by a strong scent of something burning, and it takes a minute for their eyes to adjust to the downstairs darkness. 

 

“Is everyone okay?” Eodwulf calls down. 

 

Nott and Yeza are standing by a collection of Yeza’s equipment, Caleb reading to them out loud from a book. Beau, who beat them downstairs, has settled across from Caleb and is reading their notes.

 

“Oh, yeah, we just had a few failed attempts,” Yeza calls back. Zuala follows Eodwulf down to the table, setting the trays she took from him down beside the others. 

 

“We brought lunch,” Astrid says, grabbing one of the chairs. “Is it going poorly?”

 

Yeza shrugs, peering into one of the vials that is sitting over a burner. “Not terribly. Experiments fail sometimes, we’re learning with each failure. We’ve managed to get a lot of information, and make a lot of progress.”

 

“Yeza is a  _ genius,”  _ Nott says, coming over to grab two of the sandwiches. “He’s making sense of the vaguest instructions on the planet.”

 

“With these two’s help,” Yeza says quickly, accepting a sandwich from Nott. “This isn’t something I could manage on my own.”

 

“It is a team effort, Nott, and you are helping a lot too,” Caleb says. He grabs a sandwich, his eyes never leaving his book. 

 

Nott grins. Zuala steps back against one of the walls, watching. Yeza smiles at her.

 

“We’ll have this done by the time you need it,” he says. “That much I’m sure of.”

 

“Right,” Zuala says, fidgeting a bit. “It’s okay if you still need a bit after she gets here.”

 

“This stuff is impressive,” Beau pipes up, shuffling the papers in her hands around to inspect a different page. “Seriously, it’s written like a riddle.”

 

“The one thing we are still uncertain of is here,” Caleb says, plucking one of the pages out of Beau’s hands and pointing her to the middle of it. 

 

“Bathed in the joy of the stars…” Beau reads. “I thought you knew everything about stars because of… you know,” she says, gesturing vaguely. She looks between Astrid, Eodwulf, and Caleb. 

 

“Well, we know a bit,” Astrid says. “But there’s not a whole lot even recorded. It’s not common for someone to actually get to meet a star.”

 

Caleb sighs, petting Frumpkin’s back. “I have theories, but nothing makes sense. Nothing that would  _ bathe  _ an ingredient.” He pauses. “Nothing, that is, that wouldn’t hurt Zuala.”

 

Zuala steps away from the wall, coming over to the table. “Bathed in what sense?” she asks. 

 

Beau jabs lightly at the paper. “It just says that for it to work, some of the ingredients need to be bathed in the joy of the stars for a night.” 

 

“Light,” Zuala says, tucking a loose strand of hair behind her ear. “It probably means starlight.”

 

“ _ Oh!”  _ Beau exclaims. “That’s right, when you nearly blinded me in the library, it was because we found Yasha!”

 

Zuala nods. “We can control it to some extent, but not entirely. I think if you leave the ingredients out in starlight overnight, it should do the trick.” 

 

“Interesting,” Eodwulf says quietly, shuffling around for one of the books. He flips through it for a second, and then frowns at the page. He puts it in front of Astrid, who scans it. 

 

“Huh,” she says. “That makes sense.”

 

“What does?” Beau asks. 

 

Eodwulf looks up. “Well,” he says. “There was something in one of the…” his eyes move to Zuala. “Instructions for how to get the most power out of a star that never made complete sense to us,” he finishes, watching her steadily.

 

Zuala starts to put things together. Her mouth feels dry. “A star’s power is at its height when the star is shining the brightest, and if we shine the brightest when we’re happy…”

 

“The implication is that if you kill a star when they are at their happiest, the potency of anything you take from that star will be greater,” Caleb says, hand stilling in Frumpkin’s fur. “I suppose it could once have been common knowledge, or more common, that glow meant happiness.”

 

“Well,” Yeza says, coming over to stand next to the table. “That means that we should be able to be finished tomorrow, if everything else goes smoothly.” He looks determined. “How long until the others get here?”

 

“As of when we last spoke, they should be here tomorrow, or the day after,” Caleb supplies. “More likely the day after, earlier in the day.”

 

Yeza nods. “So unless something goes wrong--”

 

“--which if it does you’ll fix it,” Nott adds. 

 

“--it’ll be ready in time,” Yeza finishes, giving her an affectionate smile. 

 

Zuala nods, her throat feeling tight for some reason she can’t quite put her finger on.

 

\--

 

“Are you sure you’ve never swung a sword before, Yasha?” Jester asks excitedly from where she’s perched on a crate. Yasha stands far enough away from her for it to be safe, the large sword grasped in her hands, Fjord moving around to coach her. Molly’s watching from the other side, offering input when needed. They’d been at it for a while, and Yasha was certainly learning.

 

Jester, according to Molly, was also there because she could heal if things went horribly wrong-- which he assured her wouldn’t happen. 

 

Yasha glances her way, shifting her weight like Fjord instructed. “No,” she says. “I didn’t have hands to hold one with before.”

 

“Oh, right, you’re a star, and stars aren’t people except when they are.” Jester thinks for a moment. “There’s a lot of things you probably haven’t done yet.” 

 

“Like what?” Yasha asks. 

 

“Like…” Jester swings her legs against the crate, making soft thumping noises. “I dunno, I gave you cupcakes the other day. Nugget’s with mama, so you haven’t pet a dog, or heard mama sing, and she’s the best there--” she cuts herself off with a gasp, the thumping stopping. “Have you ever heard music, Yasha?” 

 

Yasha shakes her head. “I don’t think I have.”   
  


“If you haven’t heard music, you’ve never danced, have you? How are you gonna dance with Zuala when you two get married??”

 

Yasha flushes as Fjord peers at her curiously. “Married?” he asks. 

 

“Jester… suggested it,” Yasha says. 

 

Jester beams. “They love each other  _ very  _ much and wouldn’t it be just so much fun to have a big wedding? For two  _ stars _ , Fjord! They’ve been in love for  _ millions  _ of years!!”

 

“Well, millions is a little…” Yasha says. “But, well, I’ve been thinking about it. I have a ring.”

 

“They’re going to be the first stars  _ ever  _ to get married,” Jester says. 

 

“If she says yes,” Yasha says, but she can’t hide the fact that the thought makes her happy, not when she begins to shine softly in the afternoon sun and a faint glimmer of wings hang in the air behind her. “I want us to be connected, no matter where we are. And… well, I do love her more than anything.” 

 

“And we can see how happy the thought makes you,” Molly says with a grin. “You’re shining, dear.” 

 

Yasha lowers the sword, nodding. “So what’s this about dancing?” she asks, turning to face Jester.

 

Jester grins. “Molly,” she says. “Can you and Caduceus help out?” 

 

Molly pushes away from the wood he’s leaning on. “I don’t see why not,” he says. “I’ll go find our tall friend and ask him if he’s up for some music after dinner, you guys put that sword somewhere where it won’t kill anyone.” 

 

Fjord comes up beside Yasha with the sword’s sheath, taking it from her. “We’ll do a little more tomorrow. At the very least, you’ll be able to swing it around with enough force that people will think twice before coming at you.” 

 

Yasha nods. “Thank you, Fjord,” she says. It feels odd, after holding its weight for so long, not to have the sword in her hands still. 

 

Jester’s distracting her from this in an instant, though, grabbing both of her hands. “I’m going to tell Caleb to teach Zuala how to waltz,” she says. 

 

“Won’t that be a giveaway?” Yasha asks. “There are probably more important things to be spending their time on, right?”

 

“Nothing more important than your wedding dance, Yasha!” Jester tells her. “Though, you probably won’t get married  _ right  _ away, we’ve got to plan that. But there might be a party right away! And if there is you  _ have  _ to dance with Zuala, it’ll be so much fun!”

 

It’s easy to get swept up in Jester’s excitement, and Yasha finds herself nodding. “Okay. Will you teach me, then?”

 

\--

 

A few hours after they’ve finished their sandwiches, Zuala has found herself sitting on the floor between Astrid and Eodwulf, going through what information they have about stars and offering more insight while the others keep working on their project.

 

The sound of Caleb’s chair scraping as he half-jumps out of his seat makes them all look up. 

 

The others can’t hear it, but Jester is speaking in his ear, voice quick and excited. “ _ Caleb, you should teach Zuala how to waltz. You have to, okay? Besides, you all are just sitting around until we get there anyway, right?”  _

 

Caleb sighs, waving his hand to let the others know it’s fine. “ _ Jester,”  _ he sends back. “ _ I will certainly try, if we have the time. Is there a reason for this?” _

 

“It was a Sending,” he tells the others. “Jester seems very excited about the concept of--” her voice in his head interrupts him. “--one second.”

 

“ _ Yes, but it’s a secret! But also Molly and Caduceus have been practicing and we want everyone to be able to dance together, you know?”  _

 

“ _ I will suggest it,”  _ Caleb responds. He settles back into his chair. “She says Molly and Caduceus have been practicing, I assume their instruments, and that we should teach Zuala how to dance because of that.” 

 

Zuala blinks. “Dance?” she asks. “Why?” 

 

Across the table from Caleb, Beau’s eyes widen as if she’s just put together a puzzle. “You know,” she says, with a strange blend of casualness and urgency. “I think it might be fun. You can teach Zuala, Nott can dance with her husband here, maybe we can have Nott’s kid and Kiri come and have a… you know… fun evening, or whatever.” 

 

Zuala feels a bit like she’s missing something. “It might be fun to learn,” she says, thinking back to the dances she’d seen in the past. To dance with Yasha… 

 

Astrid grins at Beau. “You could finally learn how to actually dance with Jester, huh?” 

 

Beau doesn’t argue. 

 

“I think it would be fun,” Yeza says. “It’s been a long time since we danced together,” he adds to Nott.

 

Nott nods. “I guess it has.” She wipes her hands on the apron she’s wearing. “I can go get Luc and Kiri.”

 

Yeza grins. “We don’t have much more to do before night here,” he says. “Mr. Eodwulf, how do you feel about a few more people for dinner?”

 

Eodwulf looks up from the book he’s reading. “It should be fine,” he says. He claps the book in his hands shut and sets it on the pile next to him. “Zuala, want to help me with it? I could use the extra hands.”

 

Zuala’s a little surprised, but she nods. “Whatever you need,” she says. He helps pull her to her feet. 

 

\--

 

After dinner, Molly and Caduceus set up a pair of chairs and start to tune their instruments while Jester tries to explain the basic steps of a waltz to Yasha. 

 

“Okay,” she says, after they’ve managed to get their arms in the proper positions. “So we’re gonna move like we’re going to the four corners of a square. So you step back with your right foot first--” Jester and Yasha both step their right feet back. “Wait no!” Jester quickly corrects. 

 

“You have to do the opposite of what Jester’s doing,” Fjord, who’s sitting on the crate Jester had been occupying earlier, calls out. “If she goes back, you go forward.”

 

Jester nods. “Sorry, I’m used to my part. So what  _ you’re  _ going to do is go forward--” in telling Yasha to step forward, she steps forward too, their feet kicking each other. 

 

Yasha catches her balance easily, but Jester tips a bit, so Yasha catches her to keep her up. “Maybe you should just tell me your part and I’ll flip it in my head,” she suggests, amused, as she sets Jester back on her feet.

 

“Okay!” Jester thinks for a second. “Okay, so I go back--” this time, she and Yasha step the right ways. Her face lights up. “And then this way to the side,” she continues, tugging Yasha’s hand. “And then bring the other foot over. And then you do the same.” 

 

“So  _ I  _ go back,” Yasha says, stepping a bit clumsily backwards. 

 

“Yeah!” Jester grins. “You’re a fast learner.”

 

“You said it’s like a box, so then we--”

 

“Close it!” Jester tugs, and they both step to the side. 

 

Yasha smiles. “Okay,” she says. “Again?”

 

Jester nods. “I’ll still count it. Back, side, and then together… and then forward, side, together!” They repeat the steps a few times. Yasha becomes more confident with each time, though her eyes are still more or less glued to her feet as she moves.

 

“Can I offer some tips?” Fjord asks. 

 

“You don’t even know how to waltz!” Jester shoots back. “At least, not  _ officially.”  _

 

“Maybe not,” Fjord says. “But both you  _ and  _ Caleb have tried to teach me. Yasha, when you feel comfortable, try not looking down at the floor so much. And Jester, if you want Yasha to take the leading part, let her lead.”

 

“I’m just helping while she’s practicing,” Jester says. 

 

“It’s okay,” Yasha says. “I don’t mind the reminder of which way to go. I’m worried I’ll step on you, though, if I’m not looking.”

 

“Oh, you will,” Jester says. “But I’ll probably step on you! That’s part of the fun.”

 

“I don’t want to hurt you, though.”

 

“You won’t,” Jester reassures her. “Want to try a few steps not looking to get used to it? And then Caduceus and Molly can play for us?”

 

Yasha nods. The evening progresses in this way for a while, with Fjord watching from the sidelines and offering his input (and every once in a while helping Jester demonstrate what she means by an instruction she’s giving Yasha) and Molly and Caduceus playing around with different paced waltzes on their fiddle and cello. 

 

Jester is an encouraging partner, and Yasha finds herself having more fun than she expected. The faster-paced waltzes make them stumble a bit, but it’s almost more fun when they’re failing to keep up, the two of them laughing as they try to get back on the beat. She’s glad, she thinks, that she met Jester and the others, and that Zuala is with some of their friends. Because she trusts these people, even just from the short time she’s known them. And she can’t wait to dance like this with Zuala. She can’t wait to hear what Zuala’s laugh sounds like, to see her smile.

 

The song they’re dancing to finishes with a flourish, and the two of them stumble to a stop a few seconds after. They give Molly and Caduceus a round of applause, Fjord piping up from his spot with a “were you trying to kill them with that one?”

 

“Not kill,” Molly says with a grin. “Just give them a challenge.”

 

“That one may have been a little too fast,” Caduceus says. “Still, some things are.”

 

Jester beams at Yasha. “I’m glad you’re having fun,” she says, with a kind of knowing tone.

 

Now that the sun is setting, it’s much easier for Yasha to realize what she means, as a bit of light from behind her catches the corner of her eye. “Well,” she says. “It is a lot of fun. I was thinking how I can’t wait to dance with Zuala, and…” she rubs the back of her neck a bit awkwardly. “I am glad it was you guys who picked me up out of the water.” 

 

“Aw, Yasha!” Jester exclaims, giving her a huge hug. Yasha stumbles, laughing. 

 

“You know, it really was a perfect storm of things that brought us here, wasn’t it?” Fjord asks.

 

Caduceus smiles. “I think we were meant to find you,” he says. 

 

“Meant to or not, we’re glad to have you,” Molly adds. 

 

Yasha smiles back at all of them. “Thank you,” she says, glowing. 

 

“How about another song, then?” Fjord asks Molly and Caduceus. 

 

They exchange a look. Molly gives a wide grin. “I think we can arrange that.”

 

\--

 

In the kitchen, Eodwulf gestures for Zuala to sit at one of the stools at the counter.

 

“I thought you wanted help?” Zuala asks, watching as he goes over to gather what he needs. 

 

“Well, if you want to help you can, how are you with a knife?”

 

“For cooking? I’ve never used one.”

 

“Right.” Eodwulf piles some vegetables onto the counter. “Well, you can stir once I get it started, we’ll save the knife lesson.” He pauses. “The books you’ve been going over with us…”

 

“There’s something that’s been bothering you,” Zuala says. 

 

Eodwulf sighs. “A lot of them are translations of old Zemnian legends.  _ Old  _ legends, so the translations aren’t… well, they don’t capture the  _ feeling  _ of the words within them. They just capture the basic meaning.” A few pots go on the stove, one with just water and another with a mixture of various things that get put in so quickly that Zuala loses track. 

 

“Is their project going to fail because of the translation?” Zuala asks, gesturing to the basement.

 

Eodwulf shakes his head. “No, nothing like that. It’s just… how often they talk about ‘those who obtain the heart of a star,’ when you read the translation, it implies physically, but in old Zemnian…”

 

“It means something else?” Zuala asks. 

 

“Well,” Eodwulf says. “Sort of? Not on its own, but in context. See, in one legend, it talks about how  _ multiple  _ people were able to get the full power of the heart of one star, because that star’s heart was given to all of them. In another, it talks about how those who obtain the heart of a star will live forever  _ beside  _ that star, past their days of mortal life.” He’s expertly peeling and cutting carrots, potatoes, and onions. “And some talk about a star’s heart,  _ freely  _ given. But there’s another thing.”

 

Zuala, who’s been watching him carefully, leans forward a bit in her chair. “Yeah?”

 

“The translation of  _ heart _ . You know how in Common, heart can mean the thing in your chest or… your feelings, specifically of love?” 

 

Zuala nods.

 

“In old Zemnian, they didn’t often refer to the physical thing. Sure, they knew it existed, but it just didn’t  _ matter  _ as much as the other translations. If someone heard ‘heart,’ they’d think of feelings, of love, not of the thing beating in your chest.” 

 

“So… all of that stuff about the heart of a star…”

 

“Could be based off inaccurate translations. And that doesn’t even begin to scratch the surface. None of the legends ever mention the person with the heart being immortal  _ here _ .” Eodwulf gestures widely with a knife in one hand and a carrot in the other. “Reading it back then, I didn’t see it, but reading it now I think I’d translate it differently. To something that means something more along the lines of…” he frowns, thinking. 

 

“The people a star loves?” Zuala asks. 

 

Eodwulf nods thoughtfully, scraping cut up vegetables into the mixed pot. The water starts to boil with a little help from a spell from Eodwulf, and he measures out rice into it. “Something like… that those who a star truly loves will forever live beside the star, up there--” he points up. “ _ After  _ they are no longer able to walk the world down here.”

 

Zuala considers what he’s saying. “So the man who is after my power, and Yasha’s…”

 

“He’s chasing a dead end, probably.” Eodwulf says. “Well, not entirely. The power of a star’s  _ physical  _ heart is still great, it just… fades. So he’d extend his life, with two stars quite a bit, but it wouldn’t be eternal. He’d keep hunting down any star that fell to the planet and doing the same to them. He’d have to.”

 

“But that’s…”

 

Eodwulf nods. “I’m sorry. He’s not a good man, and I don’t doubt that it’s possible he’s already put this all together and just doesn’t care. I thought you should know. You can tell the others, too, but I want that to be up to you.” He sighs. “I am sorry for the parts I played in helping him with this.” 

 

“Thank you,” Zuala says quietly. “For telling me. And for being honest. But you don’t have to apologize.” She sits back in her chair. “You, Astrid, and Caleb keep talking about your responsibility to me and Yasha because of this man. But…” she sighs. “I don’t know, from what I’ve seen of people, they always find a way. Whether it’s to a good or a bad end. If it hadn’t been you, he probably would still be after us,  _ and  _ we might not have people like the three of you and everyone else to help us.”

 

Eodwulf stares at her for a moment, processing. “I… see,” he says. “I hadn’t thought of it like that. Thank you, Zuala.”

 

Zuala smiles. “Of course. Since I can’t help much with dinner, I can at least help with perspective.”

 

Eodwulf laughs softly. “Here, if you want to help you can come stir this.” He gestures with a spoon at one of the pots. 

 

Zuala gets the distinct feeling this is something he usually does with magic, but she hops down from her stool and comes around the counter. “Just tell me what to do.”

 

\--

 

Yasha and Jester continue to practice dancing while the stars come out; Fjord goes to get them some lanterns so that they can still see where they’re going. 

 

After a few more songs, Molly suddenly sits up straighter. “Say, Jester?” he asks. “Do you still have that little enchanted music box we found on a pirate ship?”

 

Jester thinks for a moment. “You mean the one that will play back the last song it heard?” she asks. 

 

Molly nods. “That way we all could get to dance.”

 

“I think it’s in Fjord’s office,” Jester says. 

 

“Is that just your storage space?” Yasha asks. 

 

Fjord shrugs. “Basically, if we’re honest,” he says. “Jester, I think it’s on one of the shelves to the left when you walk in.”

 

“Okay!” Jester hurries off to go find the music box. Molly stands, stretching. 

 

“You’re improving a lot, Miss Yasha,” Caduceus says, smiling over at her. 

 

Yasha smiles. “Practice is a good teacher,” she says, going over to the side of the ship. She looks out over the ocean, wondering how Zuala’s doing on land, what she thinks of this place. 

 

“Say,” she says, not looking back. “Do you think we’ll have time to bring Zuala out on this ship? I think she’d like it here, especially at night.”

 

“I think that depends on how urgently you need to get back,” Fjord says. 

 

Yasha nods thoughtfully. “I wonder…”

 

“There’s the danger Mr. Caleb mentioned,” Caduceus says.

 

Yasha turns back to them, frowning. “You’ve mentioned this before, there’s some man in his past?”

 

The other three exchange looks. “Well,” Fjord says, slowly.

 

“He had a teacher,” Molly says. “The kind of man who’d stop at nothing for power.”

 

“It makes sense that stars are powerful,” Caduceus says. “So it makes sense he’d be interested. People like him would be interested in shooting stars even if stars weren’t…” he looks at Yasha. “People shaped.”

 

“What would happen if we were to encounter him?” Yasha asks.

 

“Nothing good,” Fjord says.

 

Caduceus smiles, but it’s dark, not reassuring. “If you can give him more dead than alive, he wouldn’t be one to hesitate.”

 

“But,” Molly says, coming over and putting a hand on her shoulder. He squeezes. “We won’t let that happen, so you don’t have to worry, dear.”

 

“Yeah, and we’re super strong, so you can trust us!” Jester makes all of them jump-- they hadn’t noticed her come back. Her grin, as she walks over to Yasha and Molly, is bright, but a bit off. “He’s put all of us in danger before, even my mama who doesn’t make any trouble. But he’s too scared of us to actually do something.” She plops a little box into Molly’s hand.

 

Yasha squeezes Jester’s shoulder in an attempt at the same comfort Molly just offered her. “Thank you, Jester.” 

 

Jester’s smile goes back to full. 

 

“Well,” Caduceus says, looking around. “We’ll record, and then dance?” 

 

“Let’s!” Molly says, crossing the deck with a flick of his tail.


End file.
